Enova trace their origins to Clover Solar, founded July 30, 1976. The company and its successor, Solar Electric Engineering, based in
Rohnert Park, California, initially specialized in products harnessing
solar energy, including garden lights,
photovoltaic panels, and
hot water heaters.
Conversions Chandler H. Waterman built his first electric vehicle conversion in 1968, based on the
Datsun 1200, as a hobbyist in Athol, working part-time after his job at
Simplex Time Recorder; he was a self-admitted "assembler using off-the-shelf components". the latter was sold as the "Electricar 1". In 1978, the Renault conversion was rebranded as the Lectric Leopard and the U.S. Electricar Corporation was formed as a division of Waterman Industries. The Lectric Leopard attracted attention at its launch thanks to its distributor, John Hoy Kauffmann, who was marketing the converted vehicle to government agencies. Previously, Kauffmann was a member of the ownership group that formerly held
The Washington Star. In 1979, U.S. Electricar was the largest producer of battery-electric automobiles in the United States, with 79 completed. The Lectric Leopard had a suggested retail price in 1981 of , more than double the cost of the donor Renault due in part to the extra labor cost of having to remove the conventional drivetrain; U.S. Electricar signed an agreement with
Fiat in 1980,
Noel Perrin was another one of the first customers, purchasing an Electron (converted
Ford Escort) and driving it cross-country from California to Vermont. That year, William Meurer opened Green Motor Works Inc. in
North Hollywood, a dealership which planned to sell exclusively electric cars converted by Solar Electric or using parts sourced from them. Meurer first sold a Destiny to actor
Leslie Nielsen; by 1993, Green Motor Works was concentrating on selling the
Kewet neighborhood electric vehicle. Solar Electric Engineering had moved to a larger headquarters in
Sebastopol, California. After Solar Electric acquired U.S. Electricar in the early 1990s, the company launched new conversions and took on a pilot program to convert
United States Postal Service Grumman LLV delivery trucks. At the time, the electric vehicle market consisted mostly of conversions using lead-acid batteries. U.S. Electricar signed an agreement in 1993 with
Hughes Power Control Systems to purchase 1,100 AC traction motors and motor controllers, which would be used to convert Chevrolet S-10 pickup and Geo Prizm sedans in a
South Central Los Angeles facility. The AC traction motors were derived from the one used in the
GM Impact, and were more efficient than the DC motors that Electricar had used previously. That August, Solar Electric acquired the electric vehicle manufacturing arm of
Nordskog Industries in
Redlands. The southern California assembly plant opened near
Carson in May 1994. That June, U.S. Electricar signed an agreement with
Itochu Corporation to market converted S-10 pickup and LLV delivery vans in Japan, with Itochu taking a 4.5% ownership stake for US$15 million. In late summer 1994, U.S. Electricar delivered 25 S-10 pickup conversions to
Virginia Power and entered a joint venture with
Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation to build an assembly facility in
Syracuse, New York. Most of its sales were to public electric utility fleets.
Licensing and partnerships The new Republican majority in Congress
elected in 1994 had a chilling effect on potential investors. In March 1995, the company, now based in
Santa Rosa, abruptly laid off a third of its workforce and moved away from selling electric conversions, closing its conversion facilities in Florida and southern California. An interim loan from Itochu kept the company solvent, but CEO Ted Morgan stepped down and was succeeded by
Roy Kusumoto in April. During the following spring (1996), the
California Air Resources Board rolled back its electric vehicle mandate, which would have required that two percent of cars sold in California have no tailpipe emissions, further depressing demand. By November, the company had relocated to
Torrance and CEO Kusumoto announced his resignation, succeeded by Carl D. Perry. U.S. Electricar partnered with Hyundai to develop the
parallel hybrid vehicle drivetrain used in the FGV-II concept car which debuted at the 1999
Seoul Motor Show. That year, the company announced it would change its name to Enova Systems. Enova developed production hybrid and fuel cell powertrains for Hyundai. Enova also announced partnerships with Ecostar Electric Drive Systems for the
Think City,
Capstone Turbine, and
Gillig in 2000. Hyundai and Enova entered a joint venture in March 2003 and dissolved it six years later. Separately, Enova developed a hybrid
school bus with
IC Corporation, first unveiled in July 2006. In May 2008, Enova entered a long-term supply agreement with IC Bus for the parallel hybrid drivetrain. Enova Systems was declared essentially defunct in August 2014, with few assets, significant losses, and only a single employee, CEO John Micek. The last filing by Enova Systems with the
Securities and Exchange Commission was for the quarter ending September 30, 2015, reporting a loss of US$188,000 over the prior three months. ==Products==