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.

Yeah, we’ve had electric cars since their introduction. Petroleum was just cheaper and worked better. Ironically a big selling part for cars was that they’d be “cleaner than horses.”

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

Gasoline powered CD Player

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

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

Ohio car

Ford made a bioplastic car that ran on biofuel a century ago. When you think of the damage that could have been prevented if it weren't for the disgusting greed of the petroleum industry

Car batteries really didn't change, huh?

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.

And batteries with plastic housing.... something is fishy here.

If only Elon was alive back then. What could have been.

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

I would think those are replacements since the originals were trashed about 80 years or more ago

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

Originally they were manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio but the company moved to Massachusetts in 1920.

These batteries are old, but are not original as the car was used in shows and demonstrations for quite awhile before retiring here.

While the means of storing energy has changed dramatically since that time, a DC battery is still a DC battery so aesthetically there will never really be much of a difference I suppose. 6V’s is the same power wether it comes from lead acid or lithium.

Take that, Elmo!

It’s a damn shame we didn’t have the foresight. But that could be said about so many things. Best thing we can do is move forward responsibly with the knowledge we have now. Unfortunately the greedy few will always prioritize their pockets over the well-being of the planet and it’s inhabitants. That’s the true fight.

I’m all for the bug based diet.

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.

Because my heart is in Ohio....

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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The dirtier horses bit at the time was specifically referring to cars not having manure, in the end cars became far more polluting .

In the 40s they also made a car out of materials made from soybeans and wheat. Called the Soybean Car, and you'd never guess why.

Somehow both a very good looking car and absolutely butt ugly at the same time

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.

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.

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.