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Henney Kilowatt
Henney Kilowatt was the world's first transistor-regulated electric car. It was a project of National Union Electric Company and Henney Motor Company, a coachbuilder known especially for their conversions of Packards to ambulances, hearses and limousines. The tooling and parts for the car were purchased from Renault, therefore the car looks virtually identical to Renault Dauphine. The electric propulsion system was designed and built by Eureka Williams, manufacturer of vacuum cleaners.
Production started in 1959, initially with a 36-volt system of two sequential 18-volt batteries. This solution was soon deemed impractical as the car had a range of only 40 miles and top speed of around 40 mph. For the 1960 model year Henney was fitted with a 72-volt system consisting of six 12-volt batteries. This allowed the car to reach 60 mph and drive over 60 miles on a single charge. During the two-year production run, 100 rolling chassis were produced, of which only 47 were completed as functional cars and sold. 32-35 cars were sold to electric utility companies and only 12-15 to general public. The company continued to promote the Kilowatt in 1961 in hope of finishing and selling the remaining 53 chassis, but only a few cars were sold. The main problem was that the 72-volt system was too expensive and complicated to attain the targeted $3600 tag price. It is estimated that between 4 and 8 cars still exist.Among them are the very first two cars - the prototype and the s/n 0001 - which for 45 years had been stored by a former company engineer, and a few years ago sold with less than 500 miles driven.
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It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept. Last edited by go.pawel; 07-24-2007 at 01:42 AM. 
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#3
12-07-2007, 07:31 AM
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#5
12-07-2007, 03:30 PM
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Do you conclude in that since the producer of the electric components also produced vacuum cleaners, and you have heard about vacuum tubes used in high end amplifiers? A nice and rear car, and I would love to see photos of yours jslagell!
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#6
12-07-2007, 06:11 PM
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 Tell you the truth, I really need to read up on that stuff. It would help me understand electronics. I really want to learn more about it, but I also can't be bothered.  I'll eventually read about it when I'm really bored.
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#7
12-07-2007, 11:23 PM
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Nope. Vacuum Tubes were superceded by Transistors. Its not the same thing: Vacuum tube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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#9
02-28-2008, 08:15 AM
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It was really cool to drive. It was quiet and it got more attention than any vehicle I have had. It felt strange to put the first miles on a car that was 48 years old. It has about 197 miles on it now. The new owner is a collector and has been looking for a Henney for some time to add to his collection. He wasn't sure if he would restore it or leave it as is.
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#10
02-28-2008, 08:18 AM
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Anyway you can always buy a real Dauphine if you like that sort of attention 
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#11
02-28-2008, 08:25 AM
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Out of curiosity, where in Virginia do you live (I notice your Henney had VA plates)?
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UCP's biggest (only?) fan of the '74-'76 Mercury Cougar. UCP's proudest owner of a '74 Cougar My favorite color is chrome.
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#13
07-26-2008, 02:46 PM
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More on Henney Kilowatt
It is mentioned that Henney bought the parts from Renault to build the cars. I believe that based on the fact that these were unit construction cars and there is no separate chassis, Henney bought complete Renault Dauphines, stripped the engines etc. out of them, and installed the electrical components.
There may have been more than 100 built, becaus years later ther was an ad in either Hemmings or Cars and Parts advertising 100 of the vehicles for sale stating that they were in a warehouse. I personally remember seeing this ad. It covered a full page. Ed Johnson
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#14
08-19-2011, 08:29 PM
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hello, im in 9th grade and this year i bought a henney kilowatt from a man that bought it from my uncle. i wouldn't have bought it , but my great great uncle owned it 30 or 40 odd years ago. he owned a museum where he bought cars and preserved them for histories sake, and developed quite a collection over time.
He also used this car as his town car (because its not very practical otherwise). Over a period of time he put over 13000 miles on it (quite impressive). When my uncle was old and came under some tough times, he sold the car to my uncle, who originally envisioned it as a present for his wife (she didn't like it, lol). So, after replacing all the batteries with new ones, (it was the early 80's) he was down about $1700. After driving the car around only a few times and putting it in 1 parade, he parked it in the back of our dusty cat-filled shop and let it ROT!! sorry.. little freak-out their. So in the early 2000's, he sold it to a man who had relation to an uncle on the other side of my family. An odd coincedence, i suppose. Who buys and sells scrap metal. I don't know what he was thinking to do with it, but i sure wasn't going to take the chance of it being smashed. So i proposed to buy it from him, and for debts im going to work off for a few years, it was mine. So now i shall restore it over the winter and hopefully have it pretty and driveable (yes that's a real word, look it up) by the spring. could someone help me add images from my desktop to share with the community?? thanks. P.S. I don't mean to argue, but by the information i've gathered, the 1960 model has 12 6v batteries and the 1959 model has 18 2v batteries. Last edited by keviox; 08-20-2011 at 07:58 PM.
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#15
08-20-2011, 07:11 AM
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