Letter: Memories and myths of electric vehicles

Sir: My late father took my mother on their honeymoon in an electric car. It was loaned to him by his employer, Edison Accumulators, which used to market the luggage trucks that dashed about Paddington station pulling trains of mail-bags etc.

In my teens, I remember being taken in the back-up car when my father's friend, Leonard Murphy, was having a trial run in an electric runabout built at his small factory in Maidenhead. Unfortunately, it overheated and burst into flames, no doubt owing to a short circuit.

Yours faithfully,

G. R. W. MITCHELL

Leeds, West Yorkshire

29 June