Many Wilson Electric vehicles were classified by their payload, which was measured in hundredweights, and this usage has been retained in the article.

[2] By 1930, the number of staff had increased to 7, and the company moved to Evington Valley Road, where they started to produce battery chargers.

[4] Battery-electric road vehicles were added to the Partridge Wilson product line in 1934, and the company expanded quite rapidly, employing some 500 staff by 1945.

[1] Following the end of the Second World War, Partridge Wilson embraced a new technology, imported from America, for the fast charging of batteries.

It used a selenium rectifier, came mounted on a wheeled chassis to make it easier to move around a garage, and could charge a starter battery in about an hour.

[6] Early customers included the West Ham Electricity Department, who bought two standard chassis in 1934, which were fitted with streamlined bodies by Tomlinson (Marylebone) Ltd.

The centrally-mounted GEC traction motor drove the rear wheels through a propeller shaft and a Moss overhead-worm type axle.

Pressing the accelerator caused a number of relay contacts to close, at a preselected rate controlled by a fluid dashpot.

Once it was hot, the second set were powered from the vehicle's battery, but the amount of current drawn was somewhat lower, as it only had to maintain the temperature.

[13] Two months later, they showcased a mobile milk bar, complete with egg-whisking machines, fountains and a refrigerator, again powered from the vehicle battery.

It was a three-wheeled tractor unit, which could be coupled to a two-wheeled trailer, fitted with a van body or a flat bed.

They had developed a new type of controller, called the Wilson Monopac, which gave good acceleration, with no "snatch" when starting.

The first three were aimed at the retail delivery market, and so were mainly supplied as bread vans and milk floats, while the 40 cwt model was designed as a lorry.

Power was transmitted to the rear axle through a propeller shaft with Hardy-Spicer flexible couplings and a spiral bevel gear.

On the larger models, the propeller shaft had Hardy-Spicer needle-roller joints, and was connected to an overslung worm drive on the rear axle.

The design included a four-speed delay action controller, operated hydraulically by a foot pedal, which was manufactured by Partridge Wilson.

[25] Although no clear end to the war was in sight, Partridge Wilson were already looking to a time when it would be over, and circulated a questionnaire to most of the larger seaside resorts in 1944, to gauge support for an idea that they were proposing.

They suggested that fleets of battery-electric single deck passenger vehicles could be used to offer tourists the chance to go sightseeing or to tour the town in which they were staying.

[27] In early 1949, Mr Edward E Grant, who had worked for Partridge Wilson for 20 years, moved to join Hindle Smart and Co in Manchester, to develop their range of electric vehicles.

The range was stated to be the Helecs, which was Hindle Smart's own product, the Jen-Helecs, which they had built for Jensen Motors, and the Wilson.

The 15 cwt model was a bread van, and was en route to the Uganda Electricity Board, where it would act as a demonstrator.

It is a model BMW 10-cwt bread van, registration number LBC 136, which was built in 1954 for Frears & Blacks bakery.

[34] An earlier vehicle, originally supplied to the Electricity Department of Coventry Corporation in 1935, but converted into an ice-cream van in 1947 by Cox's Ices, was on display at the Snibston Discovery Museum until its closure in 2015.