The Electric-Car State of the Art— 55 Years Ago
Your faithful Substacker was on hand in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 6 August 1968 when two cars were flagged off to race from one coast to the other on electric energy.
In 1968 the Great Electric Car Race was held between student groups at Caltech and MIT. It was the inspiration of Caltech undergrad Wally E. Rippel, who had made his 1958 VW bus emission-free. Eager to demonstrate electric-powered vehicles as an effective way to combat California’s smog, he retrofitted the VW with $600 worth of batteries and a fork-lift…
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