subject: Early Electric Cars [print this page] The majority of people do not realise that the electric car is not a modern invention. The history of the electric car stretches back 10 1839.
Professor Stratningh of Groningen, Holland designed the first electric car and his assistant Christopher Becker built it. In 1842, an American called Thomas Davenport built another electric car, and the Scotsman Robert Davidson built his too. Interestingly all 3 of these inventors built their vehicles with no knowledge of each other's work in the field. The Frenchman Gaston Plante come up with a better battery in 1865, which made electric vehicles more viable. Gaston made another breakthrough in battery technology in 1881. That breakthrough gave electric vehicles a range that made them practical for use.
By 1899, a great deal of progress had been made. Constant Jenatzy, a Belgian, built an electric car, which was the first vehicle to break the 100-kph barrier. His son Camille Jenatzy was the record-breaking driver.
By 1895, the Americans became involved in the development of electric cars. By 1897, New York City had a fleet of electric taxis and in 1902; the popular Phaeton became available to the public. It could travel 18 miles at a top speed of 14mph.
In 1899 electric cars started to outsell both steam and petrol cars. The electric car had a better range than the steam car. Steam cars needed to stop every few miles to top up with water. They also had the advantage of being easy to start. Steam cars required 45 minutes to build up stem prior to a journey and petrol cars had to be crank started. Changing gear was difficult at the time, so the fact that an electric car had no gears was another selling point for them. Since most journeys were in town, the electric cars low range was not really an issue.
Electric car production peaked in 1912. After that, sales began to decline. More roads had been built between towns, so people needed to travel further. Texas crude oil was discovered leading to the price of petrol dropping to a point where more people could afford to run a petrol-powered vehicle.
Henry Ford's invention of the production line was the development that stopped electric cars from being viable. Ford was able to bring the price of a petrol car down to a level that electric cars could not match.
