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| Photo by Mr. Ackroyd |
BY KEVIN DONE, INDUSTRIAL STAFF
ENFIELD AUTOMOTIVE, the company which hoped to launch the electric car in Britain on a commercial basis, is to close at he end of· the month after producing only 112 vehicles in the past two years.
Mr. John Ackroyd, the company's managing director, said yesterday that the private market for the hand-built car, costing about £3,000, appeared to have been saturated.
Only six of the cars have gone gone to private owners. The Electricity Council bought 61 in the company's biggest order, while most of the others went to electricity authorities abroad.
The Electricity Council paid about £180.000 for its 61 models of the Enfield 8,000, the twoseater model which can reach speeds of 40 mph and has a range of up to 55 miles.
The Council is carrying out detailed evaluation of the car, including the technical, social and energy prospects, and has bought the entire slock of spares to enable it to carry on its tests.
Mr. Ackroyd said the company had hoped that, as output built up, the cost of the car might come down, but this aim had not been realised. The six models bought privately were taken by people who were "either very dedicated, or ν rich".
The cars have been assembled on the Greek island of Syros from parts manufactured in Britain. The original plan was to build the cars on the Isle of Wight, but assembly was switched to the Greek island after backing by Mr. John Goulandris, a Greek businessman.
Final testing and completion work was still carried out at Cowes. But now the 13-strong workforce there is to be made redundant.
The Electricity Council first announced its interest in electric cars ten years ago. Since then, however, other U.K. companies involved in electric car projects have abandoned them.
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| Factory Closure news circa April 1975 |