Welcome to the Electric Car Owners Club™ Electric Car Society™ Since 1982 Though significantly outdated, this site shows the early modern development of the electric car and is of historic importance DIDIK EV's | Electric Car Owners Club Main Menu | CitiCar History | Driving an EV | CitiCar Parts List | EV CD-ROM How Build an Electric Car | History of Electric Vehicles | Citicar Catalog | CitiCar Wiring Diagrams | Realistic view of Electric Cars and Q&A | ComutaCar Catalog | See how this site looked in 1998   The Electric Car Owners Club was started in 1982 by Frank X. Didik as an informal association of electric car owners and enthusiasts. At that time, interest in electric cars developed during the second gasoline crises in 1977, had died out, and it was very difficult for electric car owners to obtain information on maintaining and improving their electric cars. The club acted as a focal point for electric car owners. By 1986, over 900 electric vehicle owners world wide had joined the group making it one of the largest electric car clubs in the world. Most owners had either CitiCars, ComutaCars, Elcars (from Italy) or various conversions such as VW Beatles, Renault R5's, Renault Dalphine's, Bradly GT2's and even van conversions such as the Electric Jet Van. There was never a fee to join, though many members contributed their time and money to send out a newsletter and operate the BBS system. What distinguished Electric Car Owners Club™ members from so many other groups today, is that almost every member not only discussed electric cars, but also owned and drove electric cars on a regular basis. The Electric Car Owners Club was an inspiration to many people and many of the technologies and cars that we take for granted in today in 2026, can be traced back to this club.     The Electric Car Owners Club™ also maintained an extensive library and photo collection of various electric cars world wide. Sadly, some of the archives were destroyed in a fire in 1992. Nevertheless, much of the remaining archives (over 20,000 pages of records) are being scanned and edited and is expected to be published on CD-ROM in mid 2002. This database/archive should be of great interest to all electric car owners and enthusiasts. Frank X. Didik talking to the press at his electric car show in front of New York City Hall in Manhattan, in 1996. These shows attracted a wide range of people interested in electric vehicles. This was long before the current interest in electric cars. Electric cars were unknown to most people back then.   The Electric Car Owners Club™ is also known as the Electric Car Society™. Today, the world wide web, with its many excellent electric vehicle related discussion groups and mailing lists, has very adequately covered the area that the Electric Car Owners Club™ had set out to do. We have been encourage all members to get on the web and join these groups. Over the next few months, a number of additional files will be placed on the WWW. Some of the files to be included are original CitiCar catalogs, repair, information, sources of parts and various databases. Electric car owners, enthusiasts and builders will probably find the upcoming CD-ROM of use. Click on plate to enlarge Electric Vehicle Licenes Plates: We are presently working with various motor vehicle offices throughout the USA and Canada to develope a new line of licese plates for electric vehicles. Above is a preliminary sample of the plate that is expected to be issued by the State of New York which we are sponsoring. When the plates are availalbe, you will be able to order it directly from this site. More history about this site: Since the club was started long before the Internet was open to the public and instead, the Electric Car Owners Club had a newsletter and also used what was refered to as a dial up Bulliten Board System or BBS. One had to dial a telephone number and be connected to the system, that was mostly textual. At the earliest time, the the system operated at 300 baud (which was equal to thirty five letter words per minute!). Later, new modems were installed to operate at 9600 baud and still later at 12500 baud. In the mid 1990's, as the Internet was gaining in popularity, the Electric Car Owners Club / Electric Car Society converted to the internet and the original postal mail newsletter was stopped. It should also be noted that all the photographs were taken on film since the club started long before the digital camera era.      Electric Car Owners Club  electric vehicle links Electric Car Owners Club Main Menu History of the CitiCar and CommutaCar Driving an Electric Vehicle CitiCar and CommutaCar Parts List Electric Vehicle CD-ROM How Build an Electric Car (Smithsonian Institute Talk) Build a 2 person electric vehicle in 14 hours? History of Electric Vehicles from 1834 to 1987 The Horseless Age First Car Magazine in the USA. Contains details on every early car. Fascinating. Citicar Catalog from 1975 CitiCar Wiring Diagrams ComutaCar Catalog and specifications from 1980 How to convert a gasoline powered car to an electric powered car www.ElectricCarOwnersClub.com www.ElectricCarSociety.com How to build an electric car DIDIK ELECTRIC VEHICLE MENU Other Electric Vehicle Sites Critical and accurate assessment of electric vehicles Covers questions and answers regarding electric vehicles, including conversion, are they safe, are the practical, are they good for the environment and are they less expensive to run then gasoline powered vehicles. Who Killed the electric car? The answer is simple. No one. If anything, one can perhaps argue that the electric car tried to kill itself! The answers become more apparent when you read the technical issues regarding electric vehicles. The fact is that the electric car is alive and getting better. For the conspiracy theory types, it is interesting to note that in the turn of the last century, there were people who claimed that the electric conglomerates were trying to prevent gasoline cars from becoming popular! No one is holding back this technology. See how this site looked in 1998 To be placed on our mailing list or to receive information on CD-Roms, obtain a press kit please click here: Electric Vehicle Registration Page email: ev1 at didik.com Please note: in an effort to control spam, when you send an email, please include the phrase "electric car club" in the heading and also give a three to five word explanation what the email is about Thank you.   This site is updated from time to time. Bookmark for future reference. Press CTRL D , to bookmark this site www.ElectricCarOwnersClub.com /  www.ElectricCarSociety.com Copyright © 1982 - 2026 by Frank X. Didik. All Rights Reserved. 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