Every Presidential administration Since Dwight Eisenhower has talked about the importance of “energy independence”, yet shockingly little progress has been made on reducing America’s reliance on imported energy…primarily oil. It’s not that Presidents haven’t tried; Democrat Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House roof and convinced Chrysler to build and sell electric vehicles during its first brush with bankruptcy.

Based on the Plymouth Horizon, the 1980-81 Jet Electrica 007 Coupe, this front-drive hatchback was another destined-to-fail attempt at electric cars. That said…it’s a pretty cool piece of history, and up on eBay is one of the few surviving examples left. The seller thinks it belongs in a car museum, but do you agree?

From the factory, the Jet 007 Electrica actually had better performance than the gas-powered Plymouth Horizon it was based on. At least it did for 50 to 80 miles it was rated at from the factory. With just 5 lead-acid batteries on board, range wasn’t exactly impressive…though thanks to the bare-bones nature of the Horizon, there wasn’t much technology to suck down extra electricity. That, and the light weight means that this 30+ year old electric coupe has about the same range as a fully charged, $36,000 Nissan Leaf.

It is estimated that just 500 of these EV’s were made before Jet went bankrupt in 1982, the same year newly-elected President Ronald Reagan declared “There’s plenty of oil!” With gas still hovering around $3.50 a gallon, there sure is plenty of oil; it just ain’t cheap. But this EV did go for cheap, with the final bid coming in at $760. The seller thinks this EV belongs in a car museum.

A museum, or a junk heap.