It was marketed as a "one person battery electric vehicle" and definitely not a car and yet it relied heavily on good old pedalling like a recumbent bike.
It was of course the Sinclair C1, the contribution somewhat ahead of its time to non-fossil fuelled propulsion by the technology millionaire, Sir Clive Sinclair.
He had made his fortune through such innovations as the slimline scientific calculator and the "must have" amongst my generation of the pioneering personal computers branded as the ZX81 and the ZX Spectrum. His investment in an electrically assisted pedal cycle as it really was came on the back of his successes and reputation in the tech sector.
That was way back in the 1980's with the flashy launch of the C1 to the world now 30 years ago almost to the day (10th January to be exact).
At that time out of the total of 17.6 million road vehicles in the UK only 45,000 were electrically powered and of this number 90% were milk floats. The vehicle was intended for everyday use by housewives, urban commuters and young people over the age of 14 as a viable and practical means of personal transport. No licence was required for use on the public highway and electric power had just been made exempt from excise duty.
The 12 Volt acid battery under a Lotus designed chassis and lightweight polypropylene shell gave a drawing board capability of a top speed of 15mph to 20mph and a range when fully charged of 20 miles.
The marketing price of £399 was pitched below that of the cheapest manufactured car.
The high profile inauguration was coolly received by the media and general public with poor reviews and a number of safety concerns. The C1 was described by one correspondent as a "Formula One Bath Chair" and on a bitterly cold day in deep winter, perhaps with hindsight not the best period of the year to release an electric outdoor product there were major and very prominent mechanical failures. Flat batteries and an inability to propel the 45kg kerbside weight plus a single occupant up a basic incline did not bode well for the future.
The complex electronic control system required to prevent overheating and burning out was itself problematic.
Real concerns were raised by safety groups over the vulnerability of the low slung vehicle in mainstream traffic as well as the low ambient speed which just held everyone else up in an inevitable traffic congestion scenario.
Out of 14,000 C1's manufactured on the premises of the Hoover Factory in South Wales only 5000 were ever sold and this was after a dramatic slashing of the price by 90% only three months after the launch.
In an attempt to keep the price low there was a basic model and specifications such as lights, mirrors, horn and high visibility mast were sold as extras.
The part of the Sinclair Empire responsible for the C1 soon went into Receivership and the dream of its enthusiastic but somewhat eccentric inventor foundered.
In spite of the commercial flop of the product the C1 has subsequently attained cult status amongst collectors and regular users and examples can be seen today on E Bay for a few hundred pounds although prime examples have been sold for up to £5000. Modified versions have been lovingly produced by their owners with one jet engine powered trike reaching 150 miles per hour.
The design was perhaps too extreme and revolutionary for a very conservative British market and certainly for the UK climate which did not suit an open cockpit driving seat if the option of an all weather cover for the driver was not taken up.
Some citizens of a certain age were worried about gangs of tearaway teenagers in Sinclairs rampaging through villages and suburbia but they need not have been worried. I clearly remember passing a C1 on my racing bike when they were first emerging in traffic flows and thinking, again, what a daft thing it was.
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