A bit of EV history: Renault Dauphine Henney-Kilowatt

by Xavier Navarro (RSS feed) on Oct 17th 2008 at 12:17PM

Renault Dauphine / Henney Kilowatt (Wikimedia Commons)

Few people know about the Renault Dauphine. Sold in the U.S. in the late '50s, it was a creation by Renault usually powered by a 0.845 liter engine good for 32 hp. Yup, that made the car really slow. Road & Track magazine measured the Dauphine's 0-60 mph acceleration time ~~in moons~~ at 32 seconds. Nevertheless, we mention it here today because a special version that ran on electrons was shown during this year's Paris Motor Show. Back in the day, the Dauphine impressed Russell Feldman, CEO of the National Union Electric Corporation, Henney Motor Co and Exide Batteries. He ordered 200 engine-less Dauphines and made them electric. Fitted with a 36-volt system of 18 sequential two-volt batteries, the car could reach 60 km/h (40 mph) and had a range of 60 km (40 miles). Of course, the weight didn't help. A standard Dauphine weighed 650 kg, but the array of batteries made the Dauphine Henney-Kilowatt weigh almost twice that. The second generation, though, featured an improved 72-volt battery pack with a top speed of nearly 100 km/h (60mph) and a range of about 100 km (60 miles).

[Source: The Blog Auto and Wikipedia]

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Renault, USA, Paris Motor Show

Tags: dauphine, henney, henney-kilowatt, renault dauphine, RenaultDauphine, russell feldman, RussellFeldman

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David 1:48PM (10/17/2008)

I believe this is also the vehicle that first spurred Ian Clifford to launch Zenn Motor Company. In it's first incarnation they were looking to purchase and retrofit old Dauphines to EVs based on the Henney-KW model. I wanted one then, and I've had an unfortunate obsession since...

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Curt 2:14PM (10/17/2008)

Yes he has

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jeffzekas 3:51PM (10/17/2008)

My buddy, Fred, owned a Renault Dauphine, back in high school... lots of fun, actually... not too much power, so a kid couldn't get in too much trouble, but enough horsepower to hit the highway (Pacific Coast Highway) or cruise over to the market... In fact, I find this obsession with speed quite amusing... remember when 0 - 60 in under eight seconds was FAST? And, if a car went 100 mpg, it was a true sports car? Yeah, the Dauphine, and its competitor, the VW Beetle, took 22 seconds to reach sixty miles per hour... SO WHAT? Both cars got over thirty miles per gallon, were cheap to run, and cute (in an ugly kind of way). Or, as my teacher once said, "No matter how fast you go, we all end up in the same place, eventually."

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jeffzekas 3:53PM (10/17/2008)

That's 100 miles per HOUR, not per gallon.

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