The History of Electric Hatchbacks

When you look at the history of electric hatchbacks, there is pretty much no point in looking at earlier times.  The earliest date you will see anything to do with hatchbacks and electricity is 1979 because before that time all of the experiments dealt with conventional sedan automobiles or vans and trucks.  Hatchbacks were not high on the priority list for electrification and that is why 1979 is the first time something happened with them.

The first hatchback was actually quite decent and even in 1979 was able to showcase a range of 100 miles on a single charge.  Twenty years later, Honda had managed to nearly double that amount, allowing their electric vehicles to be sold in large numbers away from the United States.  When the American car companies saw the interest that such a vehicle garnered, they decided to try dipping into the electric hatchback area themselves.  This was not before Toyota released the Prius, perhaps the most famous electric hatchback of all time.  The Prius is actually a hybrid vehicle rather than fully electric, but it shows great promise.  And Toyota does have plans to fully electrify the Prius in a roadworthy fashion.

The world of electric hatchbacks was actually pushed forward a great deal in 2007 through the actions of Miles Rubin, one of the group of billionaire entrepreneurs that have gotten involved in electric vehicles.  The ZX40 was his design and fully electric, but people that needed to travel up hills could not really do it with that particular car.  That is why analysts in the industry as still looking for that great hatchback that will carry things forward.