Electric vehicle demonstration

Press, 10 April 1978, Page 16

Electric vehicle demonstration

Sir, —The only report you have seen fit to publish” on the recent highly successful tour of our electric vehicle through the North Island (“The Press,” April 6) implied failure of the vehicle during a courtesy demonstration to the Mayor of Auckland last Wednesday. An equally amusing and fairer version of the incident would have recounted that a keen but inexperienced driver had accidentally stalled the vehicle causing its protection system to trip a circuitbreaker and disconnect the vehicle’s batteries. Since the driver had not previously experienced protection system operation and was apparently too flustered to recall his correct procedures or to consult his operator’s manual, he tried unsuccessfully to reset the circuit-breaker several times without first pushing the clearly labelled “reset” button on the vehicle’s dashboard. Thus any embarrassment for the incident

remains the driver’s and our test vehicle remains completely reliable after several thousand kilometres evaluation. —Yours, etc., D. J. BYERS. Electric Vehicle Group. University of Canterburv. April 7, 1978.