Bob Hurst of Phillipston with the 1957 Citroen 2CV that he turned into an electric car.

January 10, 2009 by Denis

By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Submitted by Kim Walter

It’s been two years since Bob Hurst evicted squirrels living in his Citroen electric car , cut down a large tree growing through the trunk and repaired the odd-looking vehicle enough to get it running for a Phillipston Historical Society event.

The car was patched up then as much as was needed to get it running for the event, but now the pile of rust and rot is one final coat of paint away from looking and running better than when he and his son Jim built it in 1973.

The car, a 1957 Citroen 2CV with a roll-up cloth roof, was turned into an electric car in 1973 by Mr. Hurst and his then 11-year-old son. Citroën 2CV electric car It was an amazing accomplishment then, considering how little was being done with electric cars at the time. Mr. Hurst, now 73, had no blueprints to work with when he converted the old French car , just ideas running around in his head. He put it together from junkyard parts, using his self-taught engineering skills. It was built during the 1970s Arab oil embargo that squeezed the supply of oil so much that gasoline prices rose dramatically and gas had to be rationed. He then ran it back and forth to work and around town from 1973 to 1976.