Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (1940-2021) was an English entrepreneur and inventor best known for the home computers built by Sinclair Research, including the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum. In transport he pursued a lifelong interest in personal electric vehicles, launching the Sinclair C5 in 1985, a battery powered electric tricycle that sold only about 4,500 units and became one of his best known commercial failures despite being an early attempt at consumer electric transport. He later developed the A-bike, a compact folding bicycle for commuters, and conceived the Sinclair X-1, an improved electric vehicle that incorporated lessons from the C5 but never reached production. He was knighted in 1983 and died in 2021.
Facts
FAQs
What happened to the Sinclair C5, and what did Clive Sinclair do about personal transport afterward?
The C5 failed commercially, but Sinclair kept working on personal transport, including the A-bike and the unbuilt X-1.
The Sinclair C5, a battery electric vehicle, was one of several commercial failures in Sinclair's career. Its failure, along with a weakened computer market, forced him to sell most of his companies by 1986. He did not give up on personal transport. Until 2010 he concentrated on it, including the A-bike, a folding bicycle for commuters that was small enough to fit in a handbag. He also developed the Sinclair X-1, a revised version of the C5, which never made it to the market.
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Also in Business Atlas: the same subject.
Also in Computing Atlas: the same subject.
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Sources
1. Clive Sinclair (Wikipedia)
Lead, birth/death parenthetical
1940-2021
Lead, opening sentence
English entrepreneur and inventor
In Group: Cycle and Personal Vehicle Inventors, Lead sentence
Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (30 July 1940-16 September 2021) was an English entrepreneur and inventor, best known for being a pioneer in the computing industry and also as the founder of several companies that developed consumer electronics in the 1970s and early 1980s.
View the SourceSinclair C5 (National Motor Museum)
Vehicle collection entry, descriptionQuote, Vehicle collection entry, description
By the end of 1985, amid rising concerns about the C5’s safety, less than 9,000 had been sold and the project collapsed.
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