Now here’s something you don’t see every day, a 1960 Henney Kilowatt electric car, reportedly the prototype car on which the very limited series was based. We recently featured Henney Kilowatt serial number 0001, which you can read about here, and it appears this one is being offered by the same seller. It’s available here on eBay in Murray, Kentucky, with bidding up to $4,500.

Only 47 Henney Kilowatt electric cars were sold in 1959 and 1960, but 100 were reportedly built. If this is a prototype, it’s not surprising that it accumulated only 696 miles, but not many Kilowatts saw heavy road use. The technology was, let’s say, evolving. Produced by the National Union Electric Company, the Henney Kilowatt was based on the period Renault Dauphine, and the cars were custom built by Henney—better known for its Packard ambulances.

Victor Wouk of Caltech did the powertrain, which initially used a 36-volt system that employed 18 two-volt golf cart batteries in series. They were lucky to reach 40 mph, so highway use was out. The wonderfully named Eureka Williams redesigned the car for 1960 with a 72-volt system, and those models could reach 60 mph and cover 60 miles on a charge.

Needless to say, what we have here is a very early car, with the 36-volt system. Question for the vendor: If it’s a very early car, shouldn’t it be a 1959 instead of a 1960 as advertised? Whichever, the condition is in line with the extremely low mileage. But the car has clearly suffered from the extra-long storage, with what appears to have been rodent infestation or maybe a foreign object tearing the headliner apart. There’s rust-through on one rocker panel. The electric equipment is suffering from surface rust, and there are no batteries installed. Otherwise, the car is very nice, with an intact interior and shiny paint marred in some places by over-polishing.

While it’s probably possible to get the 1960s GE electric motor and amp meters working again, a new owner might want to modernize with today’s far more evolved EV technology. How about a Tesla Kilowatt project? The basic truth here is that the Henney was a brave attempt to revive electric vehicle production, which had been dormant since the heyday of the Baker and Detroit Electric in the 1910s and early 1920s. But gas was cheap in 1959, and Americans weren’t really interested. The vendor says the Henney was “the original pre-production predecessor [emphasis, his] to all modern electric cars, including the Tesla Model S and the Tesla CyberTruck.” Frankly, that’s going a bit far, but it was a pioneering model.

The Henney, even with off-the-shelf electric controllers, motors and proprietary batteries, could keep up with modern traffic and go at least 100 miles on a charge. And it wouldn’t cost a ton of money.

As previously stated, this seller is offering the other Kilowatt, which they claim has even fewer miles than this one. The two cars even make the Henney’s Wikipedia page. It is stated, “Of the documented Henney Kilowatts produced, it is estimated that there are between four and eight still in existence. The very first two Henney Kilowatts—the serial number 0001 and the original prototype (serial number “EXPERIMENTAL”) were stored by company executives for decades until being sold to a private U.S. automobile collector in the early 2000s.” That’s presumably who’s selling them now. There are a lot of questions in need of answers with this interesting EV. But the real question you need to ask yourself is, would you buy one of these, and if so, what would you do with it?