ELECTRIC cars abound in modern-day Wales, but did ewe know that once upon a time the Hoover factory in Merthyr Tydfil was the home of a hush-hush operation to produce an early prototype of today’s quieter, more environmentally-friendly vehicles?
Indeed, during the 1980s, Hoovers set aside a portion of their production area – away from the washing machines and vacuum cleaners – to build a battery-operated vehicle which was designed to revolutionise commuting and popping to the shops… the Sinclair C5.
Sadly, the early excitement and hype which greeted the arrival of this little three-wheeler – which looked more like a cross between a dodgem car and a golf buggy than a car – quickly faded away and became the butt of many jokes, unkindly dubbed the ‘Hoover Hedgehog’.
Read about this little piece of Welsh industrial history in our Around Wales section.