"the event they did not, the project could not continue, due to thermal problems. Neither the C10 nor the C15 ever left the drawing board. Although Sinclair went on to produce more (but much smaller) electric vehicles, the C5 debacle did lasting damage to the reputation of subsequent EVs in the UK, which the media routinely compared to the C5. It was not until a highly regarded manufacturer, Toyota, launched a serious and well-received vehicle in the 1990s, the Prius, that the C5 ""jinx"" was finally laid to rest. In 2017 Sir Clive's nephew Grant Sinclair presented what he called"
"from an earlier project to produce a small electric car called the C1. After a change in the law, prompted by lobbying from bicycle manufacturers, Sinclair developed the C5 as an electrically powered tricycle with a polypropylene body and a chassis designed by Lotus Cars. It was intended to be the first in a series of increasingly ambitious electric vehicles, but in the event the planned development of the follow-up C10 and C15 electric cars never got further than the drawing board. On 10 January 1985, the C5 was unveiled at a glitzy launch event but it received a less"
"dry in the vehicle's open cockpit. Other accessories included seat cushions and spare batteries. Sir Clive Sinclair's interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles originated in the late 1950s during a holiday job for the electronics company Solatron. Fifteen years later, in the early 1970s, he was the head of his own successful electronics company, Sinclair Radionics, based in St Ives in Cambridgeshire. He tasked one of his employees, Chris Curry – later a co-founder of Acorn Computers – to carry out some preliminary research into electric vehicle design. Sinclair took the view that an electric vehicle needed to be"
"The C5 was launched on 10 January 1985 at Alexandra Palace in North London. The event was staged in Sinclair's usual glitzy style, with women handing out press packs and a variety of promotional giveaways: magazines, hats, pullovers, T-shirts, key rings, sun visors, badges, mugs, bags, and even a C5 video game. The vehicle was given a dramatic unveiling; six C5s driven by women dressed in grey and yellow burst out of six cardboard boxes, drove around the arena, and lined up side by side. Sinclair announced the launch of a £3 million, three-month-long advertising print and television advertising campaign."
"miniaturisation"" but stated that ""a quick test ride suggested the Zike is too unstable and lacking in power to make a cyclist feel secure on the nightmarish roads of London."" Similarly Nik Berg for ""Auto Express"" noted that the Zike was lightweight and portable, but expressed concern about the lack of power and stated that ""potholes should be avoided at all costs—the tiny wheels just get swallowed."" Sinclair Zike The Zike, or Sinclair Zike, was a lightweight electric bicycle invented by Clive Sinclair and marketed by his company Sinclair Research Ltd in 1992. It was a commercial failure, selling only"
"Sinclair Zike The Zike, or Sinclair Zike, was a lightweight electric bicycle invented by Clive Sinclair and marketed by his company Sinclair Research Ltd in 1992. It was a commercial failure, selling only 2,000 units while originally intended to be produced at the rate of 10,000 a month. It was ended six months after introduction. The Sinclair Zike is a portable bicycle with a small electric motor driving the rear wheel and with batteries built into its frame. It weighs 11kg. The batteries fit inside the central shaft together with the motor. It uses nickel–cadmium batteries which have half the"
"until late 1979 that Sinclair returned to electric vehicle development. Around Christmas that year, he approached Tony Wood Rogers, an ex-Radionics employee, to carry out consultancy work on ""a preliminary investigation into a personal electric vehicle"". The brief was to assess the options for producing a one-person vehicle which would be a replacement for a moped and would have a maximum speed of . Although Wood Rogers was initially reluctant, he was intrigued by the idea of an electric vehicle and agreed to help Sinclair. The vehicle was dubbed the C1 (the C standing for Clive). He built a number"
"in their suitcases and unfolded them to bike from a ferry dock to a cable car. In 2015, an electric version, the A-Bike Electric, was introduced to the public as part of a Kickstarter campaign. The design featured 8-inch wheels, as well as a larger seat and sturdier frame. The funding campaign was successful and production began before the end of the year. A-bike The A-bike is a folding bicycle released by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2006. It was designed by Hong Kong design agency Daka, in collaboration with Sinclair Research, over a 5-year"
"items. It would be easy to drive and park and for the driver to enter or exit, and it would require minimum maintenance. The vehicle would be engineered for simplicity using injection-moulded plastic components and a polypropylene body. It would also be much cheaper than a car, costing £500 (now £) at the most. One area of development that Sinclair purposely avoided was battery technology. Electric vehicles powered by lead-acid batteries had once actually outnumbered internal combustion engine vehicles; in 1912 nearly 34,000 electric cars were registered in the U.S. However, the efficiency of internal combustion engines greatly improved while"
"and the Mayor of Scarborough, Michael Pitts, who swapped his official Daimler for a C5. However, as ""The Times"" reported, some of the early buyers were disappointed by the vehicle's limitations, citing its slowness, its limited range and its inability to cope with steep hills, which led some people to return their C5s and ask for a refund. Although the C5 reached retail stores at the start of March 1985, sales had tailed off. Sinclair resorted to hiring teams of teenagers to drive around London in C5s to promote the vehicle, at a cost to the company of £20 a"
"single, possibly 'roller' type rear wheel"". It would have been launched at the 1988 International Motor Show in Birmingham following a development programme costed at £2 million. Unlike the relatively conventional technology used in the C5, Sinclair intended to use sodium sulphur batteries with four times the power-to-weight ratio of lead-acid batteries to give the C15 much greater speed and range – over on a single charge. It would have had approximately the same dimensions as a conventional small car, measuring long, high, and wide. However, it could only have worked if sodium sulphur batteries had realised their promise. In"
"finding that the company's claims about the safety and speed of the C5 either could not be proved or were not justified. Retailers attempted to deal with unsold stocks of C5s by drastically cutting the vehicle's price. Comet first reduced the price to £259.90 but by the end of the year was selling C5s with a complete set of accessories for only £139.99, 65% less than the initial price. Production was terminated in August 1985, by which time 14,000 C5s had been assembled. Cashflow problems caused by the paucity of sales caused relations to break down between Sinclair Vehicles and"
"Clive Sinclair Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born 30 July 1940) is an English entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After spending several years as assistant editor of ""Instrument Practice"", Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics in 1961, where he produced the first slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (the Sinclair Executive). Sinclair later moved into the production of home computers and produced the Sinclair ZX80, the UK's first mass-market home computer for less than £100, and later, with Sinclair Research, the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum; the latter is widely"
"Sales never picked up despite Sinclair's optimistic forecasts and production ceased entirely by August 1985. Out of 14,000 C5s made, only 5,000 were sold before its manufacturer, Sinclair Vehicles, went into receivership. The C5 became known as ""one of the great marketing bombs of postwar British industry"" and a ""notorious ... example of failure"". Despite its commercial failure, the C5 went on to become a cult item for collectors. Thousands of unsold C5s were purchased by investors and sold for hugely inflated prices – as much as £5,000, compared to the original retail value of £399. Enthusiasts have established owners'"
"production line remained closed permanently. On 19 September 1985, Sinclair Vehicles changed its name to TPD Limited, with a direct subsidiary named Sinclair Vehicles Sales Limited continuing to sell C5s. TPD only lasted until 15 October, when it was placed into receivership. The receivers announced that 4,500 C5s had been sold by Sinclair Vehicles, with another 4,500 remaining in the company's hands. £7.75 million was reportedly owed to creditors, of which £7 million was owed to Sir Clive Sinclair himself in reflection of his personal investment in the project. Hoover was not among the creditors, as Sinclair had managed to"
"battery technology advanced much more slowly, leading to petrol and diesel-driven vehicles dominating the market. By 1978, out of 17.6 million registered vehicles on Britain's roads, only 45,000 were electric vehicles in day-to-day use and of those, 90% were milkfloats. Sinclair chose to rely on existing lead-acid battery technology, avoiding the great expense of developing a more efficient type. His rationale was that if the electric vehicle market took off, battery manufacturers would step up to develop better batteries. Wood Rogers recalls: The development programme moved to the University of Exeter in 1982, where the C1 chassis was fitted with"
"A-bike The A-bike is a folding bicycle released by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2006. It was designed by Hong Kong design agency Daka, in collaboration with Sinclair Research, over a 5-year period. It was announced to the public in 2004. Clive Sinclair envisioned the A-bike, and Alex Kalogroulis was the main designer. It weighs and folds to , small enough to fit in a rucksack. The first version had wheels, which was increased to in later models. In 2015, an electric version, the A-Bike Electric, was introduced to the public as part of a"
"world's fastest street legal electric vehicle. Video of an Enfield 8000 ECC with modern electronics Enfield 8000 The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery-electric city car, introduced in 1973 and developed in the United Kingdom by Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The car was designed by a group of Greek and British engineers headed by Constantine Adraktas (Chairman and Managing Technical Director of Enfield) and production, immediately after its introduction, was moved to the Greek island of Syros. 120 cars were built in total, of which 65 were used by the Electricity Council and electricity boards in"
"view. Such a vehicle would be exempt from insurance and vehicle tax, and the user would not need a driving licence or a helmet, all of which were required for mopeds. The legislation, which was passed in August 1983, was prompted by a lobbying campaign by manufacturers such as Raleigh who wanted to sell electric bicycles. Sinclair realised that his electric vehicle design could easily be adapted to meet the new legislation. As the ""electrically assisted pedal cycle"" category was so new, there were no existing vehicles on the market that would meet the standards prescribed by the new legislation."
"managed to convince him that the project would work. In 1984, Sinclair Vehicles' new head office was established in Coventry in the West Midlands, an area with a long-established link with the motor industry. The project's prospects were boosted by changes in the British government's approach to electric vehicles. In March 1980, it had abolished Vehicle Excise Duty for electric vehicles and by the start of 1983, the Department of Transport was working on legislation that would introduce a new category of vehicle – the ""electrically assisted pedal cycle"". This had a number of significant advantages from Sinclair's point of"
"selling some of his own shares in Sinclair Research to fund a separate company that would focus on electric vehicles. A £12 million deal was reached in March 1983, of which £8.3 million was used to fund the establishment of the new Sinclair Vehicles company. Sinclair recruited Barrie Wills, a veteran former employee of the DeLorean Motor Company, to lead Sinclair Vehicles as its managing director. Although Wills initially expressed scepticism about the viability of an electric vehicle – his twenty-five years in the motor industry had convinced him that an electric car was never going to happen – Sinclair"
"Bicycle Man LLC and moved to New York. Since then owner Peter Stull has been working with senior engineering students at Alfred University, local engineers and machinists utilizing available technology including computer FEA testing to improve their recumbent bikes. In the UK in the 1980s, the most publicised recumbent cycle in the UK was the delta configuration, sometime electrically powered Sinclair C5. Although sold as an ""electric car"", the C5 could be characterised as a recumbent tricycle with electrical assistance. A study by Bussolari and Nadel (1989) led them to pick a recumbent riding position for the Daedalus flight even"
"Jaguar C-X75 Jaguar C-X75 is a hybrid-electric, 2-seat, concept car produced by Jaguar Cars in partnership with Formula One team Williams F1 which debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. The C-X75 concept produces 778 horsepower through four YASA electric motors, each of which drives one of the four wheels. The batteries driving these motors are recharged using two diesel-fed micro gas turbines instead of a conventional four-stroke engine. It was described as a design study that would influence future design and technology. In May 2011 Jaguar announced a limited production of the C-X75 from 2013 to 2015, with a"
"Enfield 8000 The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery-electric city car, introduced in 1973 and developed in the United Kingdom by Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The car was designed by a group of Greek and British engineers headed by Constantine Adraktas (Chairman and Managing Technical Director of Enfield) and production, immediately after its introduction, was moved to the Greek island of Syros. 120 cars were built in total, of which 65 were used by the Electricity Council and electricity boards in the south of England. Powered by an electric motor and lead-acid batteries, the car has"
"coupled with two YASA electric motors placed on each axle of the car. The powertrain had a combined power output of at 9,000 rpm and helped the car achieve speeds up to . Up to three of these prototypes were then sold at auction, while one went to a future Jaguar museum, and the one was kept by Jaguar for running demonstrations. One of these prototypes was also featured in the 2015 James Bond film, Spectre. A Jaguar C-X75 appears in the 2015 James Bond film ""Spectre"" as Mr. Hinx's car. It takes part in a car chase around Rome"
"Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, then Sinclair Computers Ltd, and finally Sinclair Research Ltd. It remained dormant until 1976, when it was activated with the intention of continuing Sinclair's commercial work from his earlier company Sinclair Radionics, and adopted the name Sinclair Research in 1981. In 1980, Clive Sinclair entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at that time the cheapest personal computer for sale"
"and only about 2 million machines were produced by the end of their production run. Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd. and renamed ""Westminster Mail Order Ltd"" and then ""Sinclair Instrument Ltd."" in 1975. The company remained dormant until 1976, when it was activated with the intention of continuing Sinclair's commercial work from his earlier company Sinclair Radionics; it adopted the name Sinclair Research in 1981. In 1980, Clive Sinclair entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at the"
"as a curiosity and could not drive reliably in the street. Another cycle, this time with three wheels, was tested along a Paris street in April 1881 by French inventor Gustave Trouvé English inventor Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite, built the first production electric car in London in 1884, using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries. Parker's long-held interest in the construction of more fuel-efficient vehicles led him to experiment with electric vehicles. He also may have been concerned about"
"aiming to break a world land speed record for a three-wheeled electric vehicle and the British record for any type of electric vehicle. He said later: ""Up to 100 mph it's like you're running on rails, it's really stable. Then at about 110 to 120 mph it starts getting tricky. At that point if a tyre blew up or something happened you would be surely dead."" As quoted in the 1987 ""Guinness Book of Records"" under battery powered vehicle: ""John W. Owen and Roy Harvey travelled 919 miles 1479 km from John O'Groats to Land's End in a Sinclair C5"
"tonnes, it's capable of 55 mph speeds and has a range of 50 miles. Bluebird Automotive Bluebird Automotive is a British manufacturer of milk floats and other electric service vehicles. Their current main product is the QEV70. The company's Electron E150 prototype has been setting the land speed record for Milk Floats at 72.75 mph since August 2003. The company holds the European land speed record for electric cars at 137 mph. The payload of the vans QEV70 ranges depending on body and battery weight from 1.5 to 2.2 tonnes. The empty weight of 2180 kg, the maximum weight of"
"in with the series. When Clive Sinclair got wind of the project in December 1980, he wrote to the BBC informing them that he would be announcing a new version of the ZX80, to be called the ZX81, in early 1981. It would remedy some of the ZX80's deficiencies and would be both cheaper and more advanced. Sinclair naturally wanted the ZX81 to be a candidate for the BBC contract and lobbied for its adoption. He pointed out that there were already 40,000 users of the ZX80 and that by the time the series was broadcast there were likely to"
"Sinclair Oxford Sinclair Oxford was a range of low-cost scientific calculators manufactured and sold by Sinclair Radionics in England from 1975 until 1976. In November 1974, Gillette wanted to enter the consumer electronics market, so consulted Sinclair, who designed for them the ""Gillette GPA"". Whilst the GPA was released, Gillette put the product on hold after a short time due to economic and pricing uncertainties. Sinclair would use the GPA design for the Oxford range, the development and tooling of which had been paid for by Gillette. The first model was the ""Oxford 100"", launched in Spring 1975 for (all"
"non-renewable resources. He and Larry Perkins were inspired by the Sunmobile, a solar-powered automobile built by the General Motors Corporation which was publicly demonstrated in Chicago, United States, in 1955. British Petroleum (BP) sponsored the Quiet Achiever project, which was labelled the BP Solar Trek. In December 1982 and January 1983, Tholstrup, along with Perkins, drove the car across Australia from Perth to the Sydney Opera House, travelling over 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) in under 20 days. By contrast, the first gasoline/petrol powered car took 30 days to do the same trip. The Quiet Achiever's route was a 2,560-mile (4,130-km)"