The future of the electric car: as seen from 1968…

The other week a full set of Veteran and Vintage (V&V) magazine came our way and this gave us the opportunity to replace our existing catalogued set with better copies and to use the remainder for clipping the adverts to go into the product files.

V&V was a monthly specialist magazine, running from August 1956 to August 1979. Nowadays, the selection of magazines for classic car and vintage car enthusiasts heave on the shelves at WH Smith, but there wasn’t always so much choice. When V&V appeared, it was the late 1950s, austerity was ending, and hobbyist magazines were cropping up like mushrooms. V&V met a growing demand by enthusiasts of vintage and veteran cars, but this was before the days when we spoke of ‘classics’ like we do now. We know the interest was there because V&V was actually the direct successor to a previously short-lived magazine, Vintage and Thoroughbred Car (1953–6).

Over the years, V&V changed its covers with the times – see the pictures. It was always a bit pricey, starting at 2s when higher-circulation popular magazines like The Motor were a shilling. It was 60p when it closed, again, rather expensive. That said, it actually had a high editorial ratio and didn’t carry pages and pages of adverts like the others.

While idly flicking through the set I happened upon one issue, from September 1968, with ‘the Electric Car issue’ on the cover. With electric cars now the thing, I thought a view from fifty-odd years ago might be useful – and so it was. Inside was a feature by Philip Sumner offering a history of the electric car, and we learn the first electric carriage was by Robert Davison of Aberdeen in 1839. There is solid coverage of electric vehicles from the vintage and veteran eras, as you might expect, but the article also considers the then present day (1968), where it describes the state of the art. This included, in fact, the likes of the Ford Comuta, the Scamp and a Mini Traveller converted to electric by the Electricity Council (the latter two pictured here). The picture of the rear of the Traveller taken up almost entirely by lead-acid batteries is a bit of a shock to the modern eye. Electric cars then were always small runabouts, with a short battery range. Sumner’s article then follows with a description of the potential of new technologies such as the fuel cell and the lithium battery, with a conclusion that as things then stood, the electric car was unlikely to catch on against the convenience and ease of the petrol engine. Interestingly, it suggests that the electric car would only compete against petrol once its batteries were able to be charged within four hours, with a quick charge of 30 minutes giving a range of no less than 20 miles. Modern-day electric users would be unlikely to stomach that!

The adverts in this single issue of V&V are very good, with three in full colour, all shown here. There’s one for the MG 1300, but reading the script that came with it is baffling: did people actually read the advertising blurb in those days? Or take it seriously? ‘The calm assuring throb of unstrained pistons’..? Let’s call it, of its time! Other colour adverts were for Anadin (this was before the days of paracetomol), who took the trouble to customise the advert for veteran-car-owning readers. Glossy adverts for cigarettes were also coming to the fore, with one for Benson and Hedges Special Filter. The other adverts are all black and white, and one, for Avon tyres stood out too, featuring a Rolls Royce jacked up. I’ve included an advert for motor oil, if only because that’s what you might expect in a magazine like this!