The first mini el?


In CityCom yard, the "Ur-el".

I have not been able to verify to my complete satisfaction the story of the emergence of the Mini El/City El. If you have any special knowledge of this history, please let me know.

The tale is told that a Danish mechanical engineer saw a Science Fiction film, that included small silent vehicles zipping around a futuristic landscape <Translator's note: the Woody Allen film "Sleepers" has "bubble cars" that look remarkably like City-Els. I wonder if this was the inspiration>. Whereupon the idea came to build similar. First series with approximately.50 vehicles were built. With different financial sources the El of trans A/S 89 and the mini developed el for series of 1 were produced.

 

 

 

 


Die Fakten

Morgenposten Debat Sonday the 6th of october 1985, page 3.

Thanks to Anders Mørup Hermansen for the translation from danish to english.
The name of the man is Steen Volmer Jensen and he is an engineer. 20 years ago he build is own car, because as he says, he has alway been interessted in everything wich has four wheels and a steeringwheel. But he dos'nt like to be called a handyman, wich works with his ideas in his basement. He is much more an industial worker, to professional and marked oriented. He as a past in the british car manufacturingindustry, but in the nearpast he has been working as reseach and development chef at the Dronningborg Maskinfabrik in Randers. He got the idea a friday afternoon almost five years ago, when he got home from a busy day at work. He watched some television, and by coincidence watch a documental program about transporteconomics after the oilkrisis. "It was the usual program where people from left political wing, meet the right wing and. The was much discussion, but one thing could they agree about, and that was that wee couldent expand the public transport to a point where it could replace the privat. Not in this century. Blick ins ur el Cockpit.
Thinking the idea through this started his brain, says Steen V. Jensen. I turned the TV off by 21:30. When i went to bed at 2:30 i had the idea to what i call a new transportconcept. I would make a car that could be used for local trafic, only so i just could do the job. Nothing less, and surdently nothing more. This should be a tiny and simple thing, that everybody could afford as car nr. 2. That it was going to be an electric car, was planed much later. As an old carmanufactor, i probaly had a dislike for electric engiens, but soon it was clear that i only needed very few horsepowers. That ment i only needed a battey or two. I did'nt like the normal idear that an electric car need 12 or 14 batteries...

last modification 08.07.00