Electric Cars Pre-Date Civil War

mental_floss:

Talk about an old idea. The first electric cars hit the scene way back in the early 1830s, 30 years before the Civil War (for the record, they're also older than the Eiffel Tower, Joan Rivers and sliced bread). In fact, the electric car was actually the first popularized car. In the year 1900, of the 4,192 cars produced in the United States, 28% of them were electric. And in 1903 electric cars outsold gasoline powered cars, representing about 1/3 of the cars found on the road in New York City, Boston, and Chicago.

So what made electric cars so popular? Basically, the reasons for its success are the same reasons people are taking a second look at electric cars today: they were quieter, smoother and easier to drive (gasoline-powered cars required gear changing, whereas electric cars did not). And on top of that, they didn't emit noxious smells or gases.

Read the whole story: mental_floss

Comments

[HippyGourmet]

04:09 PM on 06/15/2008

Shifting carbon footprint to solar voltaic is the way to go for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atG1tWvfMhQ

An example of electric cars running off of solar panels

[noneIn2008]

08:01 PM on 06/14/2008

A couple issues, depending your objective.
If you want to save costs, you must ask the total operating cost of the car.

If your objective is carbon foot print, then what is your source electricity? What are your efficiencies of conversion. You'll find the electric car leaves a bigger carbon footprint, just not in the same back yard. But most neogreens are NIMBY. You move the carbon foot print to the state of the power plant.

[robXdion]

02:52 PM on 06/14/2008

MajorKong,

Along with that, is the fact oil men in the early 20th century realized the money to be made from gas powered cars. In the late 80s the oil companies bought the patent for an engine that ran on water so it couldn't be massed produced.

[MajorKong]

11:08 AM on 06/14/2008

The invention of the electric starter was what more or less killed the electric car. Electric cars were popular with women because you didn't have to hand crank them. Hand cranking not only required a degree of strength, if the engine backfired the crank could cause serious injury.

[RTIII]

04:44 PM on 06/13/2008

Well, my BS meter went off.

I've worked on electric vehicles - old, simple ones - and I have a lot of background with electricity and electric motors and their control. There were a LOT of problems with this. For one thing, it may be that autos actually built at the time were only capable of 20 mph or so, but electric motors, even at that time, are capable of far better performance, FAR better.

Further there's no transistor-based technology in simple electric vehicles. There is TODAY, but not back then. You didn't need it. There are some pretty simple techniques to control electric motors...

This article MAY, however, spur me to do some research into EV history...