Here’s another electric car that was “ahead of its time,” as some historians like to say. Around  50 years ahead of its time, it turns out.

If you were thinking to yourself just now that hmm, the Henney Kilowatt looks an awful lot like a Renault Dauphine, good eye. You’d be absolutely right. This brave attempt at a practical electric car was indeed based on the Dauphine, differing in appearance mainly in its badging. (See our feature on the charming but quirky French subcompact here.)

For decades, the bread and butter of the Henney Motor Company of Freeport, Illinois was in building hearses and ambulances, most notably on Packard chassis. But as Packard faded out of business, Henney and its parent company went looking for a new enterprise and seized upon the potential of an electric commuter car. It was a sound enough idea, but given the available battery technology in 1959, it was around 50 years too early.

The Killowatt used two different electric propulsion systems. The first one developed by Cal Tech engineers was a novel 36-volt setup powered by 18 two-volt batteries. When it proved to be less than practical, a more conventional arrangement was devised using 12 six-volt automotive batteries wired in series to operate at 72 volts, managed by a solid-state controller. Batteries were split between the front and rear compartments with a 7-hp General Electric DC motor driving the rear wheels. According to company literature, the improved Kilowatt could run at 60 mph and offered a range of 60 miles, though probably not both at the same time, we’d wager.

Marketing for the Henney electric emphasized utter ease of operation. There were two simple gauges on the instrument panel, a voltmeter and an ammeter to monitor the battery pack’s state of charge, and a 25-ft extension cord was provided to recharge the vehicle from any standard 120-volt household outlet. (Level 1 charging, we call that now.) Charging time was eight hours, and the Kilowatt was presented as the ideal car for shopping and around-town errands. But on the down side, the hefty $3600 list price (the cost of a new Oldsmobile at the time) cancelled out the economy angle.

Only 47 vehicles, reportedly, were sold between 1959 and 1961, the great majority of them to electric utilities to be used as promotional vehicles. A mere handful went to private owners. This was the typical arc for electric vehicles and their makers in this  period as the technology, and the resulting performance, were not much better than in the first generation of EVs that were obsolete by 1925. The necessary breakthrough in batteries would not come for another half-century.