Electra King

B & Z Electric Car Co. began building the Electra King in Long Beach in 1961, by German Wikipedia’s account, and later moved to Signal Hill; Small Cars Club and Jalopnik date the car from 1963.source 1source 2source 3source 4 Long Beach already had electric runabouts of its own, the Autoette and the Electric Shopper, told below. The Electra King was an electric microcar and, at first, a three-wheeler, with a single wheel in front, a glass-fibre body, and a motor driving one rear wheel by chain.source 1source 3source 4 MTDM says the motor was a 1 hp army-surplus unit from a tank turret; German Wikipedia gives a 24-volt DC motor of 735 W.source 5source 1

Until 1966 there were two bodies: a two-seat coupé with fixed doors, 2,565 mm (101 in) long, and a four-seater with curtained sides and a back seat facing the rear. They ran on five 6-volt batteries, four for driving and one for the lights, and went about 70 km on a charge.source 1 In 1967 the four-seater was dropped, the coupé shrank to 2,515 mm, and a four-wheeled model appeared.source 1 Here the sources part. Econogics says the four-wheeler was not built from 1968 to 1970; Small Cars Club says a rare four-wheel version came around 1971, made in far smaller numbers and slightly dearer; MTDM ties it to a change of ownership in 1972.source 2source 3source 5 On our reading the three fit together if the four-wheeler appeared in 1967 and came back about 1971–⁠72.

The first cars did about 29 km/h (18 mph).source 5source 3 From 1972 the standard motor gave 1.1 kW, though the range fell to about 40 km, and options of 1.47 kW and 2.6 kW were offered; Small Cars Club speaks of 2 and 3.5 hp, and about 58 km/h (36 mph) with the larger.source 1source 3 By 1974 a buyer could choose three wheels or four, a steering wheel or a tiller, and hand or foot controls, which suited disabled drivers. Prices ran from $2,180 to $3,395.source 1source 3source 2 MTDM pictures it roaring, quietly, round retirement communities.source 5

Driving one

In 2012 Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik drove Curt Anderson’s blue and white three-wheeler, which Anderson had used for years to commute from Silver Lake through Griffith Park to NBC. It did 32–48 km/h (20–30 mph) and about 32 km (20 miles) on a charge. There was no speedometer, only a voltmeter, a battery tester and a knob like a kitchen timer to remind you to charge it; a toggle switch chose forward or reverse. It rolled a lot, turned tightly, and had a surprisingly big boot and a shelf over the nose wheel. The brakes, cable-operated, worked on the rear wheels only.source 4

Torchinsky thought it looked like Mr Incredible’s car in The Incredibles, and reported that the actress who played Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation had wanted to drive Anderson’s car on stage in a play, and had it repaired.source 4

The end

German Wikipedia has the Electra King built until 1981, the four-wheeler being dropped in the last years, after which B & Z imported other makers’ electric cars instead; Econogics finds the firm still at work in 1981.source 1source 2 Jalopnik says it went out of business late in the Carter administration, and MTDM that it was bankrupt by about 1980. English Wikipedia’s list runs it to 1983.source 4source 5source 6 MTDM also notes that a Bond villainess of 1999, in The World Is Not Enough, was called Elektra King.source 5 No production figure for any year has been found.

Robert Tafel designed the Autoette around 1936, as an alternative to Long Beach’s Custer cars. Newton Blood became his partner in 1940 or 1941 and sole owner in 1949; a welder, Royce Seevers, was the majority owner by about 1952; the street-sweeper maker Wayne Industries owned it briefly from 1953, and Seevers bought it back in 1958. It was built in Long Beach until the 1970s.source 7 The Autoette was a three-wheeled two-seater steered by a tiller, on Trojan batteries, driven at first by a converted 24-volt Dodge starter motor of 1½ hp. The range ran to the CruiseAbout, the Golfmobile and the Electric Truck, and from 1953 a low door on the kerb side was offered for disabled drivers. Some believe it was the first golf cart.source 7 Autoettes were allowed on the pavements until the 1970s, and some shops had parking places marked for them.source 7 English Wikipedia’s list dates it 1948–⁠70.source 6

In 1951 two former Autoette salesmen, Elmer Woodring and Harry R. Casteel, set up the Electric Car Company of California at 495 Alamitos Street, Long Beach, with L. Fred Wasson as president, and openly copied the Autoette range: pleasure cars sold as the Electric Shopper, industrial cars, the Electric Golfer, light trucks and an eight-seat personnel carrier. In 1960, under a new president, Byron T. Cline, it launched the glass-fibre FG-75 against the Taylor-Dunn Trident: 318 kg (700 lb), a 1.5 hp 24-volt motor, an advertised 29 km/h (18 mph) and 48–56 km (30–35 miles), hand controls as standard and a removable top, windscreen and side curtains. Its brochure claimed more than 25 years of dependability, an exaggeration. Late in 1962 Cline sold the business to two former employees, Woodring and Wilfred Billard, and the Electric Shopper came to an end.source 8 English Wikipedia’s list, which dates it 1964–⁠83, is wrong for this firm.source 6

Taylor-Dunn began in 1949 as R. D. Taylor Sr.’s workshop, making feed carts on his chicken ranch on West Ball Road, Anaheim; its first electric truck followed in 1951, Fred A. Dunn joined, and it took the name Taylor-Dunn Manufacturing Company in 1955.source 9source 10 In June 1955 came the Taylorcar Model PG, a three-wheeled 24-volt golf car with lights and tiller steering that was also used for shopping round the neighbourhood.source 9 In 1959 came the Model R Trident, a neighbourhood car with headlamps, tail lamps and indicators, built until 1963; a pick-up version of 1963 could be converted to carry four.source 9source 11 RM Sotheby’s gives it a 1 hp DC motor and a length of 2,134 mm (7 ft), and praised the eyebrows over its headlamps, which run the full length of the body.source 11 No production figure has been found. A restored 1961 Trident from the Weiner museum sold for $29,900 at RM Auctions’ sale in February 2013, and Vintage Golf Cart Parts owns a red, white and blue 1961 car.source 11source 9 Taylor-Dunn went on to become a leading maker of industrial electric vehicles.source 10

The Nepa Manufacturing Company of Pasadena built the Electro Master from 1962: a two-seater on four wheels with a glass-fibre body, a 36-volt DC motor of 1.47 kW (2 hp) and six 6-volt batteries, good for about 65 km (40 miles).source 12source 6 German Wikipedia ends it in 1970, English Wikipedia’s list in 1983; both rest on encyclopaedias that were not read.source 12source 6 That is the whole of the record.

Kelsen Manufacturing of Stanton, California, built the Sports Rider from 1963 to 1973: at first on three wheels with four 6-volt batteries, later on four with six. It was sold only in Long Beach, and it was so like the Electra King that MTDM wonders whether the two were connected. Production was perhaps in the low hundreds.source 13 This account rests on one source.

Little is recorded. The only trace of the Marketour is a bare row in English Wikipedia’s list of American microcars, dated 1964, with no maker, place, engine or seating given and no source; the same list has a Marketeer of 1954 and a Markette of 1967, equally blank.source 6 Whether these are one vehicle or three is not known.

How many survive is not known; Jalopnik thought in 2012 that there were not many left.source 4 No museum example or auction result for an Electra King has been found either. Body and trim parts are very rare, but the electrical parts are common.source 4