It is indeed true that a locally compact Hausdorff topological vector space E is finite dimensional.
Proof: Let K be a compact neighborhood of 0. We can assume that K is balanced. Since (1/2)K is a neighborhood of 0, there are finitely many points x1,...,xn such that
K\subseteq (x_1+\frac{1}{2}K)\cup...\cup (x_n+\frac{1}{2}K)
Let M be the finite dimensional subspace spanned by the x1,...,xn. Then M is closed. The quotient space E/M is Hausdorff. Since K\subseteq M+\frac{1}{2}K, then \varphi(K)\subseteq \frac{1}{2}\varphi(K). So (by induction) \varphi(2^nK)\subseteq \varphi(K).
K is balanced, so E=\bigcup_n 2^n K. Thus \varphi(E)=\varphi(K). Thus E/M is compact. Which implies that E/M is one point. Thus E=M.