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As national concern began to develop about fossil fuels, pollution
and other environmental issues, Seattle City Light began
some early experimentation with electric vehicles.
Unveiled by Seafair Queen Linda Andrews on February 7th, 1968,
City Light introduced the Electruc,
which was an experimental electric powered utility truck.
It was powered by two 1,500 lb. lead acid batteries
and used a special recharger which was attached to the vehicle.
The electric was used effectively at Newhalem, and the batteries
kept the truck operating the entire workday and charged at night.
On an experimental trip between Newhalem and Gorge Dam,
the truck pulled a full trailer without difficulty
and reached an uphill speed of 18 miles per hour.
The average fuel requirement was 1.3 kilowatt hours per mile.
A sign painted on the truck read, “your bright new future is all electric.”
Research and development continued into the 1970s.
City Light photos from 1973 show a prototype electric car
made from a modified AMC Gremlin as it's plugged into an Electro Park,
a parking meter equipped with an electric charging outlet.
The City Lighting Department’s May 1973 newsletter says of the Electro Park:
“It's a new concept that could alter the function of the parking meter
and pave the way for future use of short-range nonpolluting
electric-powered automobiles on Seattle streets.”
“One big drawback to the electric automobile is that it needs to be recharged frequently.”
“Electro Park would ease the problem, in part, by providing electric outlets on each parking meter.”
For $0.25 per hour, a motorist could park and charge their electric vehicle.
Then in 1976, City Light developed an Experimental Electric Mobility System called the RT1,
which could travel up to 75 miles on one charge of its eight six volt batteries.
The four passenger car was only seven feet long and five feet wide
and took up 1/5 the parking space of a typical car from that period.
The RT1 one was conceptualized as part of a downtown restricted transportation zone
from which most internal combustion vehicles would be barred.
City Light envisioned this zone full of electric cars like the RT1
as a step forward toward eliminating transportation pollution in the urban core.
We know from the 1976 annual report that the prototype was delivered.
However, what became of the experiment remains unknown.
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