Everything old is new again - the electric car

[ashling]

The invention of the first model electric vehicle is attributed to various people. In 1828, Ányos Jedlik, a Hungarian who invented an early type of electric motor, created a small model car powered by his new motor. In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a similar contraption which operated on a short circular electrified track. In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker created a small-scale electrical car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells

battery powered car, 1893


Men ride on an electric car designed by Siemens and Halske outside of Berlin, Germany, c.1882.



Thomas Edison poses with his first electric car, the Edison Baker, and one of its batteries, c.1895.



A Columbia electric car, c.1899.



Camille Jenatzy drives his self-designed electric car near Paris, France, c.1899. He was first person to exceed 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in a car.


An electric car being charged, c.1900.


Electric cars of the New York Edison Company line up in Manhattan, 1906.


An electric street sweeper cleans the roadway in Berlin, Germany, 1907.


Electric vehicles recharge at a power substation, 1909.



A Mercury Arc Rectifier Charging Set powers up an electric car in a garage in Cleveland, Ohio, c.1910.



A woman uses a hand-cranked battery charger to charge her electric Columbia Mark 68 Victoria automobile, c.1912. The Pope Manufacturing Company made the car in 1906 and the charger in 1912


A Detroit Electric car drives on a mountain road between Seattle and Mount Rainier, Washington, c.1920.

[DirkGently]

1. Yep. Cheapness and ubiquity

so often wins out over superior quality. Just as Betamax lost to VHS, cheap oil put electric car technology on a 100-yr hold.

Now it's just a matter of evolving battery technology bringing us back to where we started.

[Generic Other]

5. I rode in one yesterday

I swear it went into warp speed in under a second. Kind of scary.

[DirkGently]

6. Tesla? I'm jealous.

I know someone who owns one, but have not managed to wangle a ride as yet. I have driven golf carts -- in the woods -- and felt and heard the difference between gas and electric in that context. Smooth, quiet, instant torque vs. fussy, noisy, jerky internal combustion.

I think Tesla's gone a bit overboard with the "ludicrous speed" marketing and so forth. I get it -- one of the initial bases of ridicule for electric cars was that they would "never" be able to keep up with gas-fired vehicles; that they were "boring" and "slow." So tackling those criticisms first makes sense. It was funny being a Car and Driver reader for decades, watching them sneer at the supposed hair-shirt environmentalism of the Prius and yawning extravagantly about how dull and un-engaging hybrids were. Then the Tesla Roadster smashed their all-time 50-70mph acceleration record, previously held by some mega-dollar exotic, and they whistled a different tune.

But I don't need or want a 600-hp car, or to out-accelerate a supercharged V8 or whatever. Range is the remaining obstacle for practical commuter vehicles, and I hope continuing advancements in battery technology will cover that. An electric with a 400-mile range would be a near-perfect every day car in my view.

I love cars, gas, diesel, and electric. But of all of those, given enough range to be practical, electric vehicles have the potential at least to be the most satisfying in a lot of ways.

[Generic Other]

7. It smoothed out all my facial wrinkles

but it cost more than my house!! I am skeptical about going faster than the speed of light in a second. But I suppose everyone is going to want one of these when the price comes down!

[DirkGently]

8. I'll take a slower, cheaper one when they arrive.

Tesla and Musk have been smart in exploiting the performance potential of EVs as a selling point, and starting at the luxury end where price matters less. Acceleration plays on a strength of electric motors in general, so they went with that as the big selling point vs. range, which is much harder to improve upon.

Still, Tesla says its approaching a 300-mile range, which is better than my 4-cylinder hatchback manages (at least before the gauge gets too low). Battery improvements are slower going, but I feel like we're right on the cusp of everday viability for modern electric vehicles.

It's a good era for cars.

[catnhatnh]

2. Cool pictures...

But I do not believe for a minute in the one claiming a woman is using a hand cranked battery charger nor that a manufacturer would wait until 6 years after building the car to introduce the charger....

[DirkGently]

3. It doesn't say they waited six years.

It says the charger was made six years after the car. There's no reason to assume no charger existed until that particular one was made.

As for the "hand-cranked" part, although that precise caption appears with that photograph all over the Internet, I agree it's not likely she's actually powering a generator with that handle. It looks more like a breaker switch. Some of them are pumped to tension a spring to operate the actual switch.

[catnhatnh]

4. Agreed...

Certain laws of thermodynamics make a hand cranked auto charger unlikely-why have a car if a horse is less work?