The 1958 Charles Town-About

An all-electric car for the discerning housewife; the 1958-59 Charles Town-About.

The Town-About was conceived during one of several surges of interest in EVs during the 1950’s just after a period of rapid progress in battery technology.

Brain-child of Dr. Charles Graves, executive vice-president at Stinson Aircraft Tool & Engineering Corporation San Diego, California. The Dr made a mould from a VW Karmann Ghia Lowlight body, made modifications (to avoid infringement) the tail fins, removed the Ghia grille shapes, etc… and then fabricated the shell in fibreglass.

Their car was built on a lightweight aluminium frame from Alcoa, with two integral roll hoops underneath the body with “Americanised” Volkswagen style suspension.

You did have to give up half of the interior volume to the battery bank that was stuffed into the rear seat as it used four 12-volt car-type batteries linked in series to twin electric motors, one for each rear wheel.

The overall weight was more than 3,000 pounds heavier than a regular Karmann Ghia even with its new light weight fibreglass body. The combined 35hp from the two electric motors gave it a top speed of just 50 mph and a range of around 80-miles.

A number of prototypes were built but the car’s higher cost of $2,895 when a brand new Ghia from Volkswagen with its extra speed, build quality and after sales service was only $2,245. There was also a general lack of interest in buying expensive electric cars at the time, which ironically seems to be the same problem VW are facing 66 years later.