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Sir Clive Sinclair's infamous C5 "electric car" proved to be Sinclair Research's undoing. Controversial from the off, the C5 fiasco ended up having a catastrophic effect on Sinclair's finances. Losses of up to £7 million eventually forced the company to sell its computer business to Amstrad.
The C5 was promoted by Sinclair as an innovative personal transport vehicle and a competitor to the car.
A product range of more electric vehicles was to come: the never-released C10 and C15, each successively bigger and looking more like conventional vehicles.
Priced at £399, the C5 was much cheaper than a regular car. However was it really a tricycle powered by a battery with the cop out feature of pedals! Hoover assembled the C5, which didn’t go down well with potential consumers.
The machine had major flaws which doomed it before it had even been launched.
<![if !supportLists]>Ø <![endif]>Its top speed was a paltry 15 mph.
<![if !supportLists]>Ø <![endif]>A limited range which could be as low as 10km in cold weather
<![if !supportLists]>Ø <![endif]>The C5’s weight made it difficult to pedal.
<![if !supportLists]>Ø <![endif]>The British weather would batter the poor user as the cockpit was uncovered.
<![if !supportLists]>Ø <![endif]>Perhaps most worryingly of all was just how unsafe and vulnerable C5 was in traffic. Truck and bus drivers could hardly see the vehicle at times, and users would run the risk of serious injury in any crash.
Less than 17,000 C5s were sold, the majority in the UK. Production was stopped a few months later.
mostly in Britain although a few made it to continental Europe and the United States, and production was halted after only a few months.
Sir Clive Sinclair has never recovered nor has his business. The C5 has become synonymous in the UK with failure.
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