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whothefuqisdan OP t1_iyeg2l2 wrote

I work at a Victorian home museum and we have this Rauch & Lang electric car from 1922. It was powered by 14 DC batteries and had a top speed of about 25 mph. It was marketed as a “women’s car” and was driven from the backseat with a tiller. Everyone considers electric vehicles to be futuristic but shortly after the turn of the century, there were more electric vehicles on the road than internal combustion vehicles. Gas powered cars obviously took off though due to them being cheaper and easier to manufacture, as well as their being more money to be made in fossil fuels in general.

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LivingGhost371 t1_iyeoh32 wrote

This having a 30 mile range and probably taking hours to recharge, vs a Model T with 150 miles and minutes to refuel probably had a lot to do with it to.

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TheThiefMaster t1_iyfcp7o wrote

Refuelling the early gas cars was a huge pain - you had to go buy a can of gas at the shop! And hope they had one!

There were apparently often street power points to charge electric cars outside major shops in the cities to compensate for the hilariously small range the first electrics had (30 miles is probably an over estimate!)

In other words, both kinds of car were "a bit shit" to start with. It's widely accepted that ironically it was the electric starter that won it for the combustion engine, but I imagine the development of filling stations helped too, Vs no real progress in battery technology for a century on the electric side.

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whothefuqisdan OP t1_iyetiik wrote

That is a fantastic point and also heavily influenced it I’m sure.

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wanderer1999 t1_iyfe15w wrote

That is the key point. Energy density is the name of the game. The reality is that battery tech at the time is still far behind what a can of gasoline can get you. Battery tech is still behind gas in energy density these days.

I sure hope that will change with more research and develpment tho. We can't rely on oil forever.

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Buck_Thorn t1_iyekfrs wrote

Baker Motor Vehicle Company made electric cars from 1899 to 1914. My great grandmother had one, and Jay Leno has one now.

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whothefuqisdan OP t1_iyevx5z wrote

That is really cool! This one was owned by Lillian Reeves. There is a lot of argument around the first electrical car, technically the first, even though it wasn’t practical was a Scottish inventor named Robert Davidson in 1839 who made an electric powered carriage.

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that_other_goat t1_iyfbnt6 wrote

True

and the starter motor killed the electric car.

There was a competition between steam, gas and electric at the early part of the 20th century.

Steam was the most proven tech but time consuming took 20 minutes to heat up and build propper pressure from cold

Gas was difficult to start manually for most.

Electric was easy but with limited range.

Electric was considered a rich woman's car as you needed massive upper body strength to hand crank a car or prime a boiler. You could hire a driver but the EV was the most appealing option for period upper-class women.

Farmers wives could crank a car.

Ford made cars more available that's true but

The starter motor made the electric car moot as it lost it's one advantage. No need to risk a broken hand or arm when you can just flip a switch. This unit from 1922 was nearing the end of the OG electric car.

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srt7nc t1_iyey9tv wrote

If you are ever in the Netherlands, visit Louwmans museum, they have a section with electric cars from that period. If I remember right, they main reason combustion engine won for cars was easier distribution and strorage of petrol.

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PersonHuman08 t1_iyej89a wrote

We need to straight up back to the future this shit and prevent climate change ever happening

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Rahdit42 t1_iyel26j wrote

A lot more of it is also because of factory farming… we have to change the way we eat, and also what we eat.

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PersonHuman08 t1_iyer072 wrote

I suppose but fosseil fuels do produce a lot of green house gases and we could’ve staved off the consequences enough to maybe have the change of that issue occur much faster with less friction

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