Rapid: Electrified Voiturette for the anniversary 🎥
COMEBACK The 75th anniversary of the Swiss Rapid Voiturette R car was celebrated at the Rapid motor mower production site in Killwangen, Aargau. The new edition now runs on electric power instead of a gasoline engine.
The team from the Rapid has taken on a special project. See more in the video.
The foundations for the small car were laid by the Austro-Hungarian engineer Josef Ganz even before the Second World War. The aim was to make a small car affordable for everyone.
As a Jew, Ganz was harassed and arrested from 1934. He was later able to escape to Switzerland, where the Zurich employment office and Rapid Motormäher AG took up his idea again.
With a lot of hard work and financial support from the state, a total of 36 units of the small Voiturette R were produced in two series in the Rapid production halls in 1946.
No chance against Fiat and VW
However, interest in the minimalist car was small, since small cars such as the Fiat Topolino or the VW Beetle could already be purchased for only a little more money. Production was therefore discontinued again.
Three of the Rapid cars are still on the road today. One was restored by the Rapid and given to the Swiss Museum of Transport in 1969, and an unrestored model is in the Louwman Museum in Holland.
Mower electric drive for the car
To mark the 75th anniversary, employees of Rapid Technic AG have produced another vehicle in around 1000 hours of work based on the original drawings that still exist. Instead of the original four-stroke opposed-piston engine, modern electric drive technology (3.1 kW) is now used.
The drive train installed in the all-electric Rapid Uri single-axle truck is used. The energy comes from a lithium-ion exchangeable battery.
