Victor Wouk

American scientist (1919–2005)

Victor Wouk ('/w//oʊ//k/; April 27, 1919 – May 19, 2005) was an American scientist. He was the pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Victor Wouk, the younger brother of the writer Herman Wouk, was born in 1919 in New York City, the son of Esther (née Levine) and Abraham Isaac Wouk. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus. His father toiled for many years to raise the family out of poverty before opening a successful laundry service. He earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1939 and received his Ph. D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1942. His dissertation was Static electricity generated during the distribution of gasoline.

Wouk organized a company, Beta Electric, and in 1956, sold it only to form a new one, the Electronic Energy Conversion Corporation (EECC). In 1960, he designed smaller and higher efficiency AC to DC converters. In 1962, Wouk was noticed by Russell Feldmann, president of the National Union Electric Company and one of the founders of Motorola, who had Renault Dauphines converted to electric power (known as Henney Kilowatt cars), and was in need of an efficient speed controller for them. In 1963, Wouk sold EECC to Gulton Industries and continued his work with them. Because the domestic Big Three automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) had their own electric car programs, the much smaller American Motors Corporation (AMC) partnered with Gulton to develop a new battery based car using lithium and the advanced speed controller designed by Wouk. The running prototype was a 1969 Rambler American station wagon converted from AMC's gasoline V8 engine, to an all electric car. Power consisted of 160 Gulton nickel–cadmium batteries, each rated at 75 ampere hours, and controlled through Wouk designed electronics. It had good acceleration, but relying on batteries alone limited the car's range. The experiments with the Rambler American convinced Wouk that battery problems were not going to be solved easily to satisfy consumers. He started to design a system that would combine an internal combustion engine with an electric motor for motive power. Wouk began working on ideas for a hybrid for American Motors. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a "Clean Car Incentive Program" that funded innovative designs from the auto industry and inventors. This was the first full sized hybrid vehicle featuring a 20 kilowatt direct current electric motor and an RX 2 Mazda rotary engine. This vehicle was tested at EPA's emissions testing laboratories in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it obtained more than twice the fuel economy of the vehicle before it was converted. Furthermore, the vehicle's emission rates were only about nine percent of those of a gasoline powered car from that era. In 1974, the EPA awarded $33,000 to Wouk and Dr. Charles L. Rosen and began its own analysis of the car, but the agency did not make additional cars for the planned nationwide tests. The archives of Victor Wouk are kept at Caltech.

Victor Wouk died of cancer on May 19, 2005, in his Manhattan, New York home. and sons Jonathan and Jordan.