Sometimes something that’s not everybody’s cup of tea is, in fact, not a cup of tea at all. It’s something else, at the outer orbit of liquid refreshment. A glass of something waiting to be claimed. That’s what this 1980 Unique Mobility Electrek 2+2 seems to be in the world of cars. View it here on ebay and open the bidding at ten thousand bucks, which is what the ad is asking for, if you’re smitten. Or, wait a minute, get it immediately for a price of only $43 grand. You’ll have to find a way to Monument, Colorado, to collect it, though. Hope you can charge it up enough to get it back over the mountains. You just gotta do this by Saturday, when the sale ends.
So what in the world is this odd-looking duck? A car from the time when electricity-powered vacuum cleaners, not automobiles. It was made in Colorado, one of a series of similar cars (numbers vary, but somewhere topping out at 100, with very few left alive) produced in the late 1970s-early 1980s from a company whose expertise was in gizmos of an electric nature. According to online sources, they are still in business, making parts for the electric cars of several major automobile manufacturers.
So what would prompt someone to buy this car? Doing so makes you part of a little clique of owners who geek out over their Unique Mobility vehicles. Check out the various things you find with a search engine query, including a bunch of youtube videos and a web site called uniquemobility.org. Of course, you could use the car. It runs on sixteen 6-volt batteries and has a range of 75 miles and top speed of 75 miles an hour, for anyone brave enough to test that, and its crash-worthiness. A better idea might be to use this car to get to work four miles up the hill (that’s my commute) at a sedate 30mph.
Aren’t you drawn in by the eBay ad? I mean, c’mon—first it claims this to be one of only three Electreks working to this day. Then it offers that this is the second such car the seller has worked on, after telling the story of its show car past and then mentioning that it was put out to pasture—literally dumped in a field—by an owner named Ken Jones. I’m sure he’s thankful for the publicity. But hey, “The car drives as well as an Electrek can drive,” leaves little doubt. Or a lot of doubt, depending on your point of view. You also have the promise that the seller will look over your shoulder for life as you work on this car, a promise quickly reversed with “help is contingent on whether I want to help you or not.” And the most truthful admission of all: the seller is a broke college student. Is he broke because he spends his money and time working on goofy-looking electric cars? Maybe you should call him and ask. His number is in the ad. Or maybe help him out to the tune of close to $50 thousand bucks. At least he won’t be able to say he’s poor anymore.
As charged up as I am about electric cars, I find the
asking price to be a bit shocking! Especially when you can buy a used Tesla for $48K or less. Face it folks,
this car, while a great idea, has too many faults to make it nothing more than a commuter car and not
much else–provided your commute is a short one.
It still needs to be preserved for posterity, but not by me though. I’ll pass.
If a Studebaker Avanti and an AMC Pacer had an electric offspring…
.Lets not forget the Brake, the block of wood :)
Love it!! An Avanti and a Pacer!!!
Driving this on the street would sure get a lot of people pointing at you, but for all the wrong reasons!!
Interesting part of ev history, particularly for folks from Colorado like me. I would love to own it, but it’s not worth the opening bid to me let alone the BIN price. All because it’s rare does not mean it’s valuable.
Once weed became legal in CO years ago, the Craigslist ads and price$ of oddball stuff certainly changed…
I’m a player at around 4K just to embarrass my kids!
Has nothing to do with it. By that logic, 22 other states( and Canada, hey) should be equally as greedy, and that just isn’t so. Fact is, stoners have retreated from this activity, and it’s the “normies” that are exploiting the hobby. Colorado, from what I experienced so far,( 5 years) has become the “funnel” of America. People from all over, with money, who have have milked their region to its limits, have turned to Colorado. A more accurate assertion would be, once the internet came to be, everything changed.
Scarcity and odd don’t mean valuable.
Just slide a $14,000 Tesla battery pack into it and you’ll really have something.
Makes the Renault 12 look like a beauty.
Sure is purty, ain’t it?
This may be the ugliest EV ever to be subjected to the environmentally concerned public.
Made you look didn’t it. Seems to resemble a high roof variant of a Bradley GT?
Monument Co.I15 miles from our home ar 85kft, down hill north and south. South it come straight into Castle Rock where there are lots of car guys, kind a goofy car.
I will Never own an Electric Match with wheels, These Junks can never be recycled, like the wind mills & solar panels, so they just pollute the ground they get buried in. No Politician tells Me I have to have one of these electric junks, they can go F**k themselves, both parties. If anything, back to Horse & buggy at least these really are environmental friendly, loose road taxes. Seems these politicians are going backwards, Morons
C’mon L, tell us how you REALLY feel-
Just want to tell Brian K that this is a terrific write up. I read it a couple of times. There may be a novel in you, can’t wait.
Wow. That’s so nice. I really appreciate it.
For anyone who hasn’t done the math on the purchase of a new set of batteries to power this car, the average starting price for said 16 batteries is in the range of $3000.00. One might ought to take that into consideration when actually contemplating the purchase of this vehicle.
Remove the batteries, put in an LS motor & Chevy drive train, fuel tank, then the Ugly Duckling may have a future… Bahahaha
OMG that is the best username I have ever seen. Brilliant!
I think calling this duck odd is being too generous . . . I’m thinking ugly would be more appropriate . .
Now I know where the Tesla designers got their inspiration from.
Never realized Colorado was in France, the birthplace of bizarro vehicles.
You can get a used Tesla Model 3 cheaper than what the buy it now price is. I guess you can shoot as high as you want.
Would rather buy the 70 gto, piece of rust!
At the opening bid price, it’s more of a museum piece than something with driver potential. Because of that I doubt it’ll get much more than that.
I saw a parked Electrak in Western Springs, Illinois about fifteen years ago.