Cedre
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| Founded | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 1987 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | François Guerbet |
| Products | Very small electric Automobiles |
Cedre SARL (until 1979 registered as Société Seve-Cedre) was a French manufacturer of small cars, powered by electricity and fueled using batteries.[1] The business was established in 1975, a year after the presentation, by François Guerbet, of his first prototype at a small town called Montesquieu-Volvestre, some fifty four kilometers south of Toulouse.[2]
Cedre was an acronym standing for Centre d'Études pour la Développement et la Réussite des Entreprises.[3] The Cedre entity formed in 1975 was not a conventional commercial business but a "not-for-profit" ecologically focused entity, its non-commercial status being defined under the terms of a statute which dated from 1901.[3]
Production ended in 1987.
By 1974 François Guerbet had been fighting for several years to prove that an urban electric car was more than an impossible dream.[4] He believed that using lead-acid battery technology (then the only available option given the amount of charge needed to propel a vehicle) it would be impossible both to match the performance of a "normal" petrol driven car and achieve a reasonable range between recharging stops.[4] But by restricting the top speed to 50 km/h (31 mph) and using a very light bodied tricycle format vehicle carrying 200 kg of batteries, it should be possible to travel 100 km (61 miles) with a 120 kg load (e.g. a 70 kg person with 50 kg of luggage).[4] In essence, that combination was the blue print for the Midinette which Guerbet first presented on 25 April 1975 at the annual Paris Inventions Fair.[4]
Funding issues
Unfortunately Guerbet did not have the funds available in 1975 to put his electric car into production. He was well provided with persistence, however, and pursued various publicity opportunities, presenting at events such as the International Symposium of Electric Cars at Düsseldorf in September 1976 and, subsequently, at a similar event organised by the city of Brussels.[3] Nor was he shy of promoting the Cedre in his own capital, and pictures exist of the Midinette driving along the Champs-Élysées overshadowed, in one of them, by a Fiat 500 and a Mini both of which look quite large when driving beside the little electric single seater.[3] However, in 1977 there was still not the funding to put the Midinette into production.[3]
Guerbet's persistence finally paid off and during September 1978 the first customers for the production version of the Midinette were taking delivery of the vehicle which by now was priced by the manufacturer 14,110 francs.[5][6] The next year the little electric vehicle was again a star attraction at the Concours Lépine (annual Paris Inventions Fair) during the first fortnight in May 1978.[5]
