The Grumman KurbWatt was an all

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

electric powered concept

mail truck A mail truck or post van is a type of delivery vehicle that is used to transport post. Originally horse-drawn, most modern mail trucks are automotive vehicles. Evolution In his article, "Right through the Post", John Hollingshead des ...

History

The KurbWatt was designed to replace the

Jeep DJ The Jeep DJ (also known as the Dispatcher) is a two-wheel drive variant of the four-wheel drive CJ series. Production started in 1955 by Willys, which was renamed Kaiser Jeep in 1963. In 1970, American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased Kaiser ...

in response to the

1979 oil crisis A drop in oil production in the wake of the Iranian revolution led to an energy crisis in 1979. Although the global oil supply only decreased by approximately four percent, the oil markets' reaction raised the price of crude oil drastically ...

in an effort to consume less fuel. They were expected to save the United States Postal Service 500,000 gallons of fuel a year. The KurbWatt was determined to be too small, and because of this never entered mass production. Approximately 50 KurbWatts were manufactured in total. 40 put into service, and remained in service for about 10 years. 10 were sold to private parties. The KurbWatt was removed from USPS service in 1992 due to high battery prices and the energy crisis ending.

References

Electric vehicles introduced in the 20th century Vehicles introduced in 1980 1980s cars Motor vehicles manufactured in the United States United States Postal Service Production electric cars Electric car models Cars discontinued in 1983 {{truck-stub