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Subaru Electro-Wagon X-1, 1972

Black and white photograph of a car with a Japanese license plate with its hood open. Its engine compartment is packed full of hundreds of rectangular battery cells.

Collection of the Canadian Automotive Museum

One of the most exotic electric car prototypes of the 1970s, the X-1 (seen here in an article from Road Test magazine, March 1972) was a co-production between Subaru, Sony, and the Shinko company to test a new kind of air-zinc battery. Although its battery system was powerful and efficient, the vehicle had to be refuelled with powdered zinc, making the small car extremely heavy.