2023-07-12 11:20:00
Brazil is not exactly the most popular market for electric cars today. Still, technology has been around here since the 1970s.
The pioneer of electric cars in the country was mechanical engineer and electrician João Augusto Conrado do Amaral Gurgel, also responsible for the first fully Brazilian car manufacturer.
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Gurgel was born in São Paulo in 1969. One of the great innovations of the brand was the Itaipu E150, the suggestive name was not chosen at all. It was about the first electric car not only in Brazil, but in all of Latin America.
How was Gurgel Itaipu
In 1974 the first prototype of the car was unveiled at the traditional Auto Show before launching in 1975. The “cart” only takes two people and abuses the straight lines in the look (some even say that the model resembles a Tesla mini Cybertruck). The vehicle weighed just 460 kg, most of it made up of the 320 kg battery pack. It sounds like a lot on paper, but the power capacity was only 3.2 kW, equivalent to 4.2 horsepower. The first models only reached 30 km/h, later the top speed rose to 60 km/h. it was a fort of the car: 50 km per charge and ten hours to charge.
The model’s name is a tribute to the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant, in Paraná. Image: Reproduction
In the end, the promise of large-scale production never happened. The model experienced technical problems and soon stopped being manufactured by Gurgel. Today, the only 27 copies are rare on the market.
Today, the corrected value of Itaipu would be the same as a popular modern one, in the range of R$ 60 thousand.
Another attempt in the 1980s
The successor to the “cart” was the Itaipu E400 electric van, with 11 hp and 80 km of autonomy. The trajectory of the younger brother was also short and began in the 1980s. After a thousand copies, the vehicle was discontinued in 1982.Image: Reproduction
Without government support, the bet on the development of batteries that are more efficient and lighter than those made of lead-acid did not work either, which led Gurgel to give up the plan to develop new electric cars in Brazil.
End of Gurgel
The brand still remained on the market until it closed its doors in 1996 after opening to imports and strong competition in the national market. In its 27 years on the road, the company has sold 30,000 cars.
With information from self sport
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