By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
“A prophet is not without honour except in his own country.” – The Hungarian Canadian Louis Gyory and the unfulfilled future of his electric and hybrid vehicles, part 3
David Cameron Salter, chairperson of Marathon Electric Vehicles Incorporated of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec, with the Marathon C-300 he drove. Éric Hamovitch, “Marathon implante ‘l’électrique’ en douce.” Le Soleil, 19 July 1979, B 7.
Hello there, my reading friend who is chafing at the bit because you wish to know more about Marathon Electric Vehicles Incorporated of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec, and its now sadly forgotten vehicles. Shall we begin?
Even though its Marathon C-300 was still making the news and turning heads during the summer of 1979, Marathon Electric Vehicles had begun to concentrate its sales efforts on a boxy 6-wheeled light van with a 450 or so kilogramme (1 000 or so pounds) payload, the Marathon C-360, that potential buyers saw as a practical way to deliver a variety of items in urban environments.
The Marathon C-360 electric delivery van operated by the mail service of Dartmouth College, Hanover, Connecticut. That private American university might or might not have paid the full price of that vehicle. You see, the chairperson of Marathon Electric Vehicles Incorporated of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec, David Cameron Salter, was a 1953 Dartmouth College graduate. Anon., “Community – People, Places, Events.” Valley News, 19 June 1981, 16.
Priced at $13 000 to $16 000, sums which corresponded to $51 500 to $63 400 or so in 2024 currency, the C-360 was powered by sixteen 6-volt golf cart lead-acid batteries which provided it with a range of 60 or so kilometres (37 or so miles). That power pack propelled said small van at speeds of up to 70 or so km/h (43 or so mph). Recharging the batteries required 8 to 10 hours.
Replacing the batteries cost $800 to $880, sums which corresponded to approximately $3 150 to $3 500 in 2024 currency. This replacement had to take place after 300 or so recharges, and seemingly not after 400 or so recharges as the firm claimed.
Given the electricity rates of the time in Québec, the owner of a C-360 had to pay a measly $2.15 per 100 kilometres (62 or so miles) of city driving, a sum which corresponded to $8.50 or so in 2024 currency. There was not one gasoline-powered van on planet Earth which could cover that same distance for such a small pile of dough.
Indeed, according to Marathon Electric Vehicles, the operator of a C-360 would have to pay a measly $120 to cover a distance of 12 000 or so kilometres (7 500 or so miles). That of a gasoline delivery van of a similar size would have to cough up $935 or so. Wah! Those sums, by the way, respectively corresponded to $475 and $3 700 or so in 2024 currency.
This being said (typed?), a person could buy two basic gasoline-powered vans for the price of one C-360.
It should be noted that the individuals who drove early examples of the C-360 found it difficult to control while reversing and turning in demanding situations. The drivetrain was also prone to failure.
Please note that the following is a … Spoiler alert!
By the time those problems were corrected, Marathon Electric Vehicles was pretty much at the end of its tether.
One of the first Marathon C-360 electric delivery vans under construction at the Marathon Electric Vehicles Incorporated facility of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec. Louis Gyory took the pose for the photographer. Michael Shelton, “Electric answer to gasoline ransom.” The Montreal Star, 16 March 1979, C 1.
Incidentally, the body work of the C-360 was made of Alucobond, a light yet rigid European composite material consisting of two aluminium alloy sheets glued to a polyethylene core.
Many if not most of the C-360’s components came from the United States.
Indeed, while Marathon Electric Vehicles was pleased with the technical support it had received from its American suppliers, it was not so pleased with the measly sum that the federal government had budgeted to help the development of electric vehicles. Worse still, the government elected in May 1979 had put said sum in the freezer as it figured out its spending priorities.
You might be pleased to hear (read?) that the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario of Toronto, Ontario, took possession of a dozen C-360s during the late summer and early fall of 1980. They were to be used for a 2-year test run.
Would you believe that the Premier of Ontario, William Grenville “Bill” Davis, took a spin around the Ontario Legislative Building, in Toronto, a spin described as spasmodic, in the first C-360 to be delivered? No? Well, here is proof…
The Premier of Ontario, William Grenville Davis, at the wheel of the first Marathon C-360 electric delivery van delivered to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario of Toronto, Ontario. Joe Fox, “Electric van plant could recharge Windsor’s economy.” The Windsor Star, 25 September 1980, 1.
To quote Davis, the C-360 “goes very smoothly as long as you don’t accelerate too quickly. It’s comfortable, has good visibility, and fun.” The absence of a clutch might have been at the root of the premier’s spasmodic ride.
The 12 vehicles of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario consisted of 2 electric vans, 2 hybrids vans and 8 passenger vehicles whose propulsion system yours truly was unable to identify.
Incidentally, a hybrid C-360 cost $17 500 to $18 000 in 1980, sums which corresponded to approximately $62 750 to $64 000 in 2024 currency.
Louis Gyory showing the battery compartment of the first hybrid Marathon C-360 delivery van after their Montréal, Québec-Ottawa, Ontario, trip. Paul Whitelaw, “His battery of batteries.” The Ottawa Journal, 20 October 1979, 4.
Gyory travelled from Montréal, Québec, to Ottawa, Ontario, in a C-360 in October 1979, which was the longest journey a vehicle of that particular type had made up to that time. The vehicle he drove was the very first hybrid C-360, completed that very month of October. Able to cover a distance of 80 or so kilometres (50 or so miles) using only its batteries, that prototype had a range of up to 800 or so kilometres (500 or so miles) when its gasoline engine was used alone.
Another hybrid C-360 went from Ottawa to Toronto no later than 1980. It covered the 435 or so kilometres (270 or so miles) between the two cities without any difficulty.
The United States Postal Service ordered 10 or so fully electric C-360s in 1980.
By the end of that year, that service operated 380 or so electric vehicles of various types, which was a teeny, tiny drop in its 125 to 175 000 strong vehicular ocean.
Indeed, the C-360 had apparently been designed to fulfil the needs of the United States Postal Service, which explained why the steering wheel of that vehicle could be on the right or left. You see, having the steering wheel on the right side meant that the postal employee driving a C-360 did not have to walk around it every time she or he needed to get to a mailbox. Pretty clever, eh?
Would you believe that, in the fall of 1980, the United States Postal Service seemingly had a standing order for 10 C-360s a month? Sadly enough, Marathon Electric Vehicles was simply unable to fulfil it. Its total production capacity was… 6 to 10 C-360s a month.
Four of the Marathon C-360 electric maintenance vans delivered to the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority of Cornwall, Ontario. The president of that authority, William Andrew O’Neill, was at the wheel of the one in the foreground. Mike Hamilton, “Canal workers try out electric vans.” The Standard, 19 September 1980, 16.
One of the Marathon C-360 electric maintenance vans delivered to the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority of Cornwall, Ontario. Dave Kewley, “Electric vans give Seaway workers a charge.” The Spectator, 19 September 1980, 11.
Seven fully electric C-360ss went to the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority of Cornwall, Ontario, in September 1980. The electricians and mechanics of that federal organisation used them as maintenance vehicles on the Welland Canal system, in Ontario.
Those vehicles were the central element of a Transport Canada 5-year project, the first of its type in Canada, aimed at testing the C-360, suggesting improvements to its technology and developing an improved prototype able to travel both further and faster.
Incidentally, the Transportation Development Centre of Ottawa, a unit of the Research & Development Directorate of Transport Canada, was in charge of that project.
As part of the initial, testing, phase of the project, the staff of the consulting engineering firm chosen for the job, DSMA Atcon Limited of Etobicoke, Ontario, installed some sort of minicomputer on each van. Those devices recorded a variety of parameters linked to the performance and status of the power system.
The very first Marathon C-360 electric van delivered to the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority of Cornwall, Ontario, on display at the Electric Vehicle Seminar held in Etobicoke, Ontario. The Ontario Minister of Energy, Robert Stanley Kemp Welch, was at the wheel. Brian Clark, “Local firm giving electric vehicles a boost.” The Etobicoke Guardian, 31 October 1979, C1.
Incidentally, again, a C-360s acquired for experimental purposes in early 1979 by the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority was on display in October of that year at an Electric Vehicle Seminar held in Etobicoke. The Ontario Minister of Energy, Robert Stanley Kemp Welch, took the wheel of that vehicle and might, perhaps, have taken it for a brief spin.
The vehicle in question might, I repeat might, have been the first production C-360.
The time it spent with employees of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority, in 1979-80, led to the addition of some sort of heating pad around the batteries of the C-360s delivered to that authority in September 1980.
As the fount of knowledge that you are, my reading friend, undoubtedly knows, cold weather can rob a lead-acid battery of much of its oomph. My father, for example, religiously plugged, during wintertime, the block heater of every automobile he owned.
From the looks of it, the Transport Canada project did not reach its 3rd and final phase. Mind you, it might not have reached its 2nd phase either.
Incidentally, err, again, did you know that DSMA Acton was the firm which, in the late 1960 or early 1970s, had developed some sort of robot to insert fuel bundles in the core of Canadian-designed CANDU power-generating nuclear reactors?
Or that this same robot somehow caught the eye of engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a world-famous American administration mentioned moult times in our spacey blog / bulletin / thingee since March 2018?
And yes, the robot in question was a distant ancestor of the world-famous Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), better known, at least in Canada, as the Canadarm.
All in all, 5 SRMSs went into space aboard the 5 operational Orbiters, or space shuttles, of NASA’s Space Transportation System.
DSMA Acton played a crucial role in the development of the end effector, or hand, of the SRMS. It also designed a test rig which allowed engineers to safely yet realistically simulate, on terra firma, some movements of that complex device when it would be in space.
A brief digression if I may. The first Canadarm has been on display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, since May 2013. That Canadian engineering icon is on permanent loan to that institution, courtesy of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. End of digression.
In early 1982, the newly created Canada Post Corporation evaluated a pair of fully electric C-360s provided by Marathon Electric Vehicles. It was not sufficiently impressed to acquire those, or any other for that matter.
How many C-360 were built, you ask, my reading friend? A good question. I have no idea but would not be surprised to learn that the total production run, prototype(s) included, did not exceed 75 vehicles, if that. By the fall of 1980, for example, Marathon Electric Vehicles’ 25 or so employees had produced only 40 or so.
Given the delays it encountered in fulfilling American orders because of the limited size of its Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice facility, given also the end of its lease on that facility, in the spring of 1981, Marathon Electric Vehicles seriously considered the possibility, in the early fall of 1980, of moving into larger facilities near the Canada-United States border, either in the Windsor, Ontario / Detroit, Michigan, area or the Brockville, Ontario / Ogdensburg, New York, area.
And yes, my astute reading friend, this projected move could mean that the alliance with Davis 500 Incorporated mentioned in the 2nd part of this article had collapsed.
The vehicles destined for Canadian users and for American ones which were not subject to the desiderata of an American piece of legislation, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1978, I think, would be manufactured in the Canadian facility.
The ones destined for American users which were subject to the desiderata of the act in question, signed in November 1978 by the American President, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Junior, would be assembled in the American facility, using partly completed vehicles shipped tax free from Canada.
To do that, however, Marathon Electric Vehicles would need an Order in Council issued by the federal government, yes, the Canadian one.
By early 1981, the firm was seriously considering the possibility of setting up shop in Kingston, Ontario, and this at least in part because a site in that city would be eligible for a regional economic development grant of the federal Department of Regional Economic Expansion.
In the end, the firm proved unable to raise the dough needed to move its production line. From the looks if it, the Order in Council was never issued.
Even though its moving project had fallen through, Marathon Electric Vehicles did what it could to stay in the news. It had a presence in the Moving with the ‘80s transportation section of the Ottawa Energy Show held in… Ottawa, at Lansdowne Park more specifically, for example, and this between 30 October and 1 November 1981.
The exhibition in question was one of the activities linked to Canada’s 4th Science and Engineering Week, held between 24 October and 1 November.
One of the many sites that local folks could visit was what was then the National Museum of Science and Technology, today’s Canada Science and Technology Museum, in Ottawa. That sister / brother institution of the astonishing Canada Aviation and Space Museum offered both computer demonstrations and a computer display (exhibition?) to the throngs passing through its doors.
The president of Marathon Electric Vehicles Company Limited of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec, William Howard Candlish, with a Marathon C-360 electric delivery van. Gilles Boivin, “Un véhicule électrique de fabrication québécoise est en demande aux États-Unis.” Le Soleil, 26 November 1980, C-1.
By then, yes, by November 1981, a great many things had changed. You see, Gyory was no longer with Marathon Electric Vehicles. The firm was now presided by its former vice president, Marketing, i think, William Howard Candlish, who got the job no later than October 1980. And yes, Candlish was indeed the individual you saw a few seconds ago,
David Cameron Salter, on the other hand, was still the firm’s chairperson – and largest single investor.
And no, yours truly does not know if Gyory had left willingly, or not.
And that is it for today.
There will be a nice surprise for you when you will open the 4th and final part of this article, my ever so patient reading friend.
Rénald Fortier
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