A year never goes by without someone inventing something hilariously useless. Over the next ten pages, we'll take you on a guided tour of disastrous tech products, the gadgets and concepts we felt really surpassed themselves in being utterly crapulous. Many of these travesties aimed to reinvent the wheel, but were plagued by huge dollops of fail. Speaking of which...
Sinclair C5
Despite being an electric vehicle that respected the environment, the Sinclair C5 was a prodigious commercial flop. This battery- and pedal-powered three-wheeler was ahead of its time -- it was the first electric vehicle designed for mass production. Sadly it sucked beyond belief.
When released in January 1985, the C5 cost £399, back when the average house price in the UK was about £31,000. Designed by Sir Clive Sinclair, it was essentially a battery-assisted tricycle with handlebars for steering. Perhaps one of the reasons it never took off as a mode of transport was that its top speed was a crappy 15mph -- just twice the speed of one of those electric mobility scooters for old people.
Total sales figures vary from source to source, but the average is about 15,000 units sold. The main problems of the C5 include the fact that the driver was exposed to the weather, cold weather shortened its battery life -- well done launching it in January, Sir Clive -- the seat-to-pedal distance was unchangeable, there were no gears and it overheated going up hills. Uselessness of the highest order.
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