Oil-rich Libyan dictator had a secret passion for electric cars… and the jewel of his collection was a one-off, joke-packed beauty. But where is it now?
By Will Dron on October 21, 2011 5:09 PM
As you may have read on TheChargingPoint.com back in August, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, the lately deceased former ruler of oil-rich Libya, was a secret shopper for kinder, gentler cars of the non-gas-guzzling variety… and his favourite rise was one with built-in jokes.
Gaddafi’s vehicle fleet, discovered by rebels after they overran and captured his deserted Bab al-Azizia compound in the suburbs of Tripoli, comprised dozens of environmentally sound electric vehicles – with the prize piece of the entire collection a unique, custom-built pure electric Fiat 500.
The one-off electric car, costing €100,000 (£88,000) was created by Italian coachbuilder Castagna Milano, whose employees were none-the-wiser to the identity of the mystery customer when the initial order came through via a secretive intermediary in 2009.
Built into the car is an in-joke typical of its driver’s sense of embattled humour – the backlit image of Omar Mukhtar, aka the ‘Lion of the Desert’, a man who led Libyan resistance against Italian colonial masters from 1912, captured and hanged by the Italian oppressors in 1931.
In addition, the green paintjob (as opposed to the blue example pictured) was politically wise. Gaddafi’s signature colour, his collected wisdom was published in The Green Book, he delivered his addresses in Green Square and his soldiers were the Green Guard. To have bought him a crown jewel for his collection of electric cars in any other colour would have been seen as a provocation.
After being seized in Tripoli by marauding rebel forces, the car was last seen – and documented by a news photographer accompanying the rebel fighters – being pushed out of its silo-like garage in Bab al-Azizia by rebels and paraded through the streets of Tripoli. So this piece of history was in rebel hands in August, but where exactly is it now, we wonder?
Click here for images of Gaddafi’s electric Fiat 500 on Corriere Della Serra.