Long time readers will remember that I've covered 1970s electric vehicles before. Cars specifically though, motorcycles weren't even on my radar. Enter the Auranthetic Charger:
First of all, can we talk about that company name? I don't know what the fuck Auranthetic means but I want to buy whatever they're selling. That's the name of a bond villain's corporation. Anyway as should be evident from the picture, it ran off two 12 volt SLA batteries in series for a total of 24 volts. Mostly because of the weight of lead acid batteries, the bike was a little over 200lbs(!)
This thing supposedly had a range of 20-30 miles and a top speed of 30mph. The specs say the motor was 1hp, which is about 745 watts. I find that dubious. But then if the current was increased to compensate for the low voltage I suppose that's doable. Remember, these were the old flooded type batteries you had to top off with distilled water once a month to replace what was lost to evaporation.
In '73 probably a lot of the other boys at your school would've had gas dirtbikes, and would not have appreciated how cool an all-electric motorcycle was. The media, even then, focused harshly on the speed and range limitations of electric vehicles. This bike would not have gotten you many dates, unless you could find somebody into the environmental aspect of it.
Here's a collector's video of a restored '73 Charger in action. It actually does haul ass, and I do mean ass. That's a hefty guy, but it's moving him along at a very decent clip. I can definitely imagine this thing being useful for grocery runs, going to/from school, or commuting to work. Full specs below:
What do you think? Would you have rocked this cute little bike back in '73? Would you have cared what anybody back then had to say about it, or ridden confident in the knowledge that you were ahead of your time?
Stay Cozy!