Ken Bancroft

Founder and Owner

Electric Motor Cars

Houston, Texas

1995 Volvo 850 “Pioneer”

Our Beloved Patriarch,

Kenneth David Bancroft, passed away on October 7th 2006.

He was a Justified Legend among EVers

for his Strength and Enthusiasm.

Dissatisfied with a long and successful career in Industrial

Maintenance, Ken Bancroft found a magazine article on EV CONVERSION and on impulse,

traveled from his Houston home to meet the author in Rochester, NY and

test-drive his Electric Volkswagen Beetle.

By 1974, Ken was putting Electric Motors into small block sedans and

has done, by his estimation over two dozen custom conversions plus selling numerous do-it-yourself kits.

Knowing more than anybody about EVs, Ken was hired as Exclusive South Texas Distributor for Austin-based Jet Industries. Starting in 1980 Jet produced attractive EV models:

First were 100 five-door gliders made from Subaru gliders for off-road services.

The second production model saw hundreds of Dodge Omnis bought to

satisfy a Government Contract. The Department of Energy Electric Vehicle

Demonstration Project birthed the Electrica 007, a two-door

Hatchback Sedan that this writer has enthusiastically owned a since 1999.

3rd was the Ford Escort-derived Electric four-door and a Ford

Utility Pickup Truck.

Jet manufactured 4 Eco-Friendly models that sold for $7000 to $9000

which were supported in Houston by Bancrofts Electric Motor Cars.

An early EV club saw some early adopters driving competing models such

as the Citicar, a rolling block of Monterey Jack cheese with 15-inch wheels.

As the price of a gallon of gasoline stabilized below $1, interest in

EVs waned and Bancroft lost his ass.

Jet bankrupted in 1982, just one year after newly-elected President

Ronald Reagan DECONTROLLED PETROLEUM declaring famously,

There’s PLENTY OF OIL!. One Bold Executive Stroke delayed for Another Generation or Two, the

Promise of All-Electric Transportation. Twenty-five years later, with gas prices hovering near $3 per gallon, the Siren-song lure of 2 cents per mile using clean, quiet, ELECTRICITY and the bonus of NO GREENHOUSE GASSES, makes EVs the ONLY FUTURE. Do you think

those neat pod cars in Minority Report ran on Clean Coal?

Revived by Bancroft in 1987, The Houston Electric Auto Association,

Educates the public, makes neglected or disused EVs roadworthy,

and encourages CONVERSIONS as an alternative to Detroits

Near-Psychotic Aversion to ANYTHING ELECTRIC.

Pictured is Kens Masterpiece, the 1995 Volvo 850 Pioneer.

This one-of-a-kind honey makes no compromises. Airbags, Heating & AC, Power Steering and Brakes, Power Windows in an impressive 144-volt DC Lead-Acid battery pack.

Exquisitely laid-out in plexiglas, each component is displayed proudly

and futuristically under her expansive bonnet. Recalling driving the

Pioneer in 1998, yours truly recalls hair-curling acceleration and solid brake

control.

Who would have thought that a chance meeting with Ken outside a Radio

Shack would change this author’s life?

Dale Brooks,

President HEAA.

September 2006

STARVE A TERRORIST...

DRIVE AN ELECTRIC CAR!

(No gas, no oil, no noise, no emissions...