This is probably my favorite Danish car and it is so because its story so beautifully serves as a metaphor for the Danish post-war car industry (prior to WWII there were several syndicated factories building Ford and GM products among others as well as a decent Danish chassis and coachbuilding scene). You will see why after the jump.
If you have read all the posts in the Danish Delights series, you have probably noticed a pattern: electric cars make up a disproportionate part of the attempts at large scale production relative to what the public had actually been buying until Mr. Musk came along. Which is why there is also a pattern in the success of these attempts: There wasn’t any.
So this little beast is, of course, electric. It was pegged as “the car of the future” and indeed this made some level of sense at a time when you were still recovering from recent fuel crises and worried about the ever looming prospects of the Cold War warming up fast. Rationing makes sense in a world of uncertainty.
As you can see, this little car fit two regular sized adults just fine and in a normal fashion with the steering wheel on the left and entry through side-hinged doors. Nothing fancy or extravagant. This is why this was actually viewed as a decent proposition at the time. It looks halfway normal – unlike Danish Delights nos. 6 and 7.
Performance was relatively limited, but being small and light this would serve as a fine commuter car if your driving was mainly from the suburbs to the city center or vice versa. Rated at somewhere in the region of 8 to 14 bhp you would be alright as long as you abstained from lofty dreams of overtaking anyone. Stick to slow rush hour traffic and stick to the rightmost lane and you’re golden.
It would allegedly do up to 60 mph and had a range of about 60 miles. All in all a decent package that would totally make sense to pursue further for possible investors.
This part of the metaphor is where the ambitions totally reflect Denmark’s tradition for green energy: It being a small two-seater and not a Ludicrous Mode Tesla Model S is a metaphor for the modesty-minded Danes. This car very much represents a rational approach to transportation. These are traits associated with Denmark: sensibility and modesty.
So obviously people were watching from all over the world when the car was to be introduced in 1983. The engineers working on the car had travelled from Jutland and had been working all night to get everything ready. All very admirable – and tiring. During the stress and hard work, one minor detail was forgotten.
When the car was unveiled in front of a crowd and rolling cameras, it immediately became apparent that the handbrake was not applied, and the car slowly and undramatically rolled of the stage (really a bicycle track because in Denmark that is where you would have a car show) and crashed. It is probably the most undramatic crash you have will ever see – almost comically so. However, the most undramatic of crashes immediately killed both the Hope and all hopes of mass production with it.
Great, innovative ideas. A sensible approach. The best of intentions. All of it killed off by amateurish execution. This describes the facts surrounding the Hope Whisper and is a metaphor for every single dream of serious mass production of Danish cars since the Second World War.
As a result of the never-ending optimism and insistence on electric vehicles when really nobody wanted them, there was of course a Hope Whisper 2. Guess how that ended.
Previous installments:
Danish Delights #1: 1950 Sommer S1
Danish Delights #2: 1960 Volvo Special
Danish Delights #3: 1972 Sommer Joker
Danish Delights #4: 1981 OScar
Danish Delights #5: 1967 SVJ 1000 GT
Danish Delights #6: 1987 Ellert
Wow, what an awful intro. Was that video a re-creation of the crash? The front fender/door on the left side looks terribly askew before the car starts rolling.
I love the plaid seat fabric.
I think it may be a recreation — a few other sources say the original crash occurred when the Whisper’s creator was actually at the wheel and fell asleep due to exhaustion. Not sure which version is correct.
And I presume that the museum car is the same vehicle since it looks like it has some crudely repaired body panels.
All of that is a shame, because this is probably the most realistic-looking of the electric vehicle concepts from the early 1980s. I can imagine this car actually having been produced.
Looks like the manufacturer was a small company called “Hope Computer” — another way to look at this car is that it heralded the merging of the computer and automotive industries… several decades in advance.
I’m fairly confident the video is actual footage. Which would make sense since cameras were present. Why recreate something you have on tape? And why recreate it at all?
I heard the story about the engineer falling asleep behind the wheel as well and actually wrote it up like that at first, but the video seemed to corroborate this version.
I may be wrong on both counts of course.
Very true that it seems pointless to re-create an embarrassing crash. But then again, the car does seem pre-damaged. I wonder if there were really two crashes? One where the engineer fell asleep in the car, and the other during another staged “introduction” where the staff forgot to set the handbrake?
Doing some quick searching, I’m not finding much information on what actually took place, so anything’s possible. Nonetheless, it’s a very interesting story.
I don’t think I read your post right at first and I didn’t notice the fender. That is indeed odd. And hell, if they recreated the most traumatic event in the car’s history, that would not even be surprising.
The driver person is actuelly sitting inside the car on the video,
please take a closer look on the video at 0:03…
The driver is looking to be sleeping LOL 🙂
See video at 0:03 – its hard to see the person inside the car, due to reflections.
This is the real footage – great stuff 🙂
“Good job, people. Now we just wait for the money to roll in!”
-PR director
*tumbleweeds*
“yup, any minute now….”
Perhaps they could have marketed this as a premium garden tractor?
I usually look for telltale signs of an inferior or underdeveloped product. In this case, I laughed at the font they chose for their branding. ‘Hope’ is set in the Countdown typeface, a face released in 1965, and by the late 60s was already well overused to represent technology. By 1971 or so, it was considered tired and passe. It was a popular typeface for use on K-Tel album covers and such (see below). From a marketing perspective, it would have been beyond embarrassing to use to market a product in 1983 hoping (no pun intended) to appear modern or advanced. 🙂
Electrifying!
I love the relentless practicality of the Danes. The car rolls away while the lady who unveiled it is FOLDING the curtain. And I dare say that this whole thing could probably have been salvaged if the corporate guy had been able to reattach the bumper by pressing it back on.
A neat little car that realistically did not have much chance at success but what a heartbreaking introduction. No one made much of an effort to stop it rolling away though.
Reminds me of the Citroën Visa.
I was thinking Bijou myself, but the Visa is much closer.
Yeah, me too. And the Visa was pretty popular in Denmark as well, so there may have been some inspiration there.
Wow, that intro really is a bummer. Usually the problem is that they don’t start or something, not that they leave of their own volition.
You could say that the Hope Whisper’s contribution to the automotive world is less significant than its contribution to the world of comedy.
I reckon you could say just that!
They didnt quite have the autonomous app uploaded ready for the launch.
Oh, that’s really not bad at all.
Well, that IS a first.
Cars have botched launches. Or aren’t well-received at the launch.Or they fail after launch, or a bit down the track for want of reliability, or desirability.
But this one ran away from its own unveiling. And judging by the panels, possibly twice.
That’s actually the best description. “It ran away from its own unveiling”.
“I’ve got it! Let’s build another one”.