My friend Steve passed along this video of the L'Œuf électrique ("electric egg") concept car from 1942, designed by Paul Arzens in France during the Nazi occupation. I'm sure everyone is in agreement that they should have stopped making any other kind of car after this little electric runabout was invented 77 years ago.
From Car Design News:
The whole ensemble was amazingly lightweight. The body was only 60 kilograms, weight increasing to 90 kilograms with the electric motor. With batteries added, the whole car weighed only 350 kilograms – about the same as a pre-war cycle car.The interior was minimalist in the extreme – a simple bench seat over a wicker frame, a steering wheel, and no gauges or instrument panel. All other interior fittings were also omitted to save weight.Only an engineer like Arzens could have scrounged the materials for the Egg during the privations of wartime Paris. However, the value and scarcity of aluminum and Plexiglas meant that only one prototype could be built. Nonetheless, Arzens received quite a bit of attention for the Egg, which he claimed could travel some 100 km at 70 km/hr, or at 60 km/hr with two people in the car.
By Andrew Eland – Cité de l'Automobile, MulhouseUploaded by Edelseider, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
