Over the past few years, electricians have noticed a growing number of requests to install home charging stations for electric vehicles, increasing the demand for training in what has become a vital field economically and environmentally.
However, whilst part of the reason for this is the Electric Car Grant and proposals to make public EV charging cheaper through tax reforms, another part of this is the perception of EVs as not only capable and sustainable but also advanced and even cool.
The perception war is one that electric vehicles have waged since the era of the Scottish Aviation Scamp, the Enfield 8000 and the Zagato Zele, but it means that an important development in the history of EVs was the creation of electric sports cars.
This means that whilst the Nissan Leaf was one of the most important EVs in legitimising the concept, the original Tesla Roadster from 2008 also ultimately proved to be important in making EVs desirable.
However, a decade before this, no fewer than two electric sports cars were being developed to prove the concept, one of which was based on the same body as the Roadster.
What Was Britain’s First Electric Sports Car?
The first British electric car, and potentially the first electric car ever, was the Zytek Lotus Elise, first unveiled in February 1997 as an early collaboration between the powertrain specialist and the car manufacturer, respectively.
It was produced in limited numbers between 1998 and 2003, replacing the 1.8-litre Rover petrol engine with a power unit consisting of two electric motors and a 300V battery, which provided a range of up to 120 miles depending on the conditions and a limited top speed of 90 miles per hour.
Zytek moved on to develop a few small-scale EV projects before it was bought by Continental AG, which largely focused on its motorsport division.
Despite this, it was a fascinating example of what was possible in the 1990s and how close a breakthrough truly was technologically.
The problem was that petrol prices were relatively low, and it was a hard sell for customers without the accompanying infrastructure. This chicken-and-egg problem is one that electricians have only managed to truly fix in recent years.
What Was The First Electric Sports Car Ever?
The first electric sports car ever made was perhaps the AC Propulsion tZero, first prototyped in 1994 and took a very different approach to Zytek, not least by only producing one production car in 1996.
Outside of the bodywork, which was based on the Pionek Sportech, the tZero was based on wholly proprietary technology, including the space frame, the steering, the suspension, the single-gear gearbox and the lead-acid batteries.
Using lead-acid batteries limited the range and power somewhat; although early prototypes were able to reach a top speed of 170 mph when fitted with a multiple-ratio gearbox, the single-gear model was limited to 90 miles per hour.
It had a range of between 90 and 120 miles, aided by then-pioneering regenerative braking technology.
In 2003, one tZero was converted to lithium-ion batteries, which massively improved the range, weight and speed.