What killed the Electric Car in the 1900's?

[EddMarkStarr]

According to my grandma, there was a time when Charles F. Kettering was more famous than Thomas Edison.

Charles Kettering was the engineer of the electric self-starter motor that saved countless lives by eliminating the hand crank on petrol powered engines. Ironically, that same electric starter motor sealed the fate of the early electric automobile in America while, as equipped in the 1912 Cadillac, boosting Cadillac's claim to the "Standard of the World" slogan from 1908.

1912 Cadillac Model 30 Five-Passenger Touring

 

[cityboy-stl]

Interesting video.

I saw a Lucid on the road a few weeks ago. I had no idea what it was, but it looked cool. As a business, they seem to be struggling.

So ok, the electric starter got the ball rolling, but still, they went on to say gas powered vehicles took over due to the same objections people have to EVs today: range, cost, and charging difficulty.

I park on the street. I cannot run an extension cord out my front door overnight to plug in my car. I also won't go to a charging station and sit around for hours while the car charges, when it takes 5 minutes to fill up the tank. You know, I'm all for reducing our carbon footprint and getting off oil as much as we can, but these practical problems need to be worked out. That's just reality.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The infrastructure was not there and the oil industry too unfluential.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

The economics never change, when it comes to transportation people buy what they can afford. The list of vehicles that start in the $100k club (and higher), keeps growing for both electric and petrol powered. The key to our transportation future is "low price".

If the owner of a 2014 Toyota Corolla simply stops driving for one day each week - that act lowers the carbon footprint more effectively that buying a new electric vehicle.

 

[USEDCAR]

They probably had no where to charge the car or the technology back then for the battery.



Biden and Co is pushing for electric Vehicles and we don't even have the power grid to handle those cars. They are expensive and God forbid if the battery goes it costs more than what the car is worth. We will still be depending on China for batteries..

 

[unloadonme]

I'd have thought the answer to the question "What killed the electric car in the 1900s" was partly to do with battery technology. For a long time batteries were too large and held insufficient charge to deliver the kind of performance and range most people required.

Batteries have come on in leaps and bounds over the last decade, but there are still issues today, as cityboy-stl says above. If you live directly on the street or in an apartment, it can be impossible to charge a vehicle at home. To do so at a public charging point takes much longer than the 5 minutes needed to fill a petrol tank. I'm at the point where I should probably be thinking about replacing my car, but I wouldn't entertain an electric one as things stand.

 

[Dominus]

The current electric car isn't possible without the modern battery tech, which was not around in the 1910s.

I know a lot of people like to come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories regarding this topic. But the fact of the matter is gasoline was a lot easier to use as a power source for vehicles given the tech of the time.

 

[purina]

What we need is adult-size pedal cars.

 

[Kahaih]

The current electric car isn't possible without the modern battery tech, which was not around in the 1910s.

There are 6 billion more people on the planet now than there was in the 1910s, too. With lifestyles that are using up a lot more resources, and creating a lot more pollution.

 

[Vannie]

I think I'll buy a nice Amish buggy.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

The current electric car isn't possible without the modern battery tech, which was not around in the 1910s.

I know a lot of people like to come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories regarding this topic. But the fact of the matter is gasoline was a lot easier to use as a power source for vehicles given the tech of the time.

Yes, it was batteries. Both the Mercedes museum and the Porsche museum (around Stuttgart, Germany) have exhibits on the topic. Mercedes has black and white films of a vehicle that was capleble of tremendous acceleration, but this consisted out of basically a battery on wheels.

The Porsche museum had an electric car from the late eighties/early nineties (that I knew from a popular science magazine at the time) It is an ordinary size car which no room for backseats as all that space is taken in by batteries.

 

[me203]

I think I'll buy a nice Amish buggy.

Just don't step in the exhaust!

 

[me203]

Biden and Co is pushing for electric Vehicles and we don't even have the power grid to handle those cars. They are expensive and God forbid if the battery goes it costs more than what the car is worth. We will still be depending on China for batteries..

Yes. And I've also heard the concerns about the environmental impact of mining the materials needed for the batteries.

And there is no "if" the battery goes--the only question is when it needs to be replaced. I half think as I write this that if the government forces through electric cars, they should also force car makers to have a long warranty on batteries so the buyer can actually rely on a reasonable service life. But I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

I've heard arguments, too, for other approaches, such as hydrogen cell. Hydrogen does require care, since it's so explosive, but I have to wonder if it couldn't be more viable for a fast transition.

The current approach that they seem hell bent to shove down our throats seems likely to be a collosal disaster. Is government idealistic thinking things will work out? Or are those who say that it's intended (for whatever reason) to be a huge disaster correct?

 

[Kahaih]

I think I'll buy a nice Amish buggy.

Your roses and your rhubarb patch will thank you.

 

[pigface]

Yes. And I've also heard the concerns about the environmental impact of mining the materials needed for the batteries.

And there is no "if" the battery goes--the only question is when it needs to be replaced. I half think as I write this that if the government forces through electric cars, they should also force car makers to have a long warranty on batteries so the buyer can actually rely on a reasonable service life. But I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

I've heard arguments, too, for other approaches, such as hydrogen cell. Hydrogen does require care, since it's so explosive, but I have to wonder if it couldn't be more viable for a fast transition.

The current approach that they seem hell bent to shove down our throats seems likely to be a collosal disaster. Is government idealistic thinking things will work out? Or are those who say that it's intended (for whatever reason) to be a huge disaster correct?

Hydrogen makes more sense in many ways but for 2 problems:

Hydrogen is obtained either from fossil fuels, so one might as well use the fossil fuel directly, or it comes from the electrolysis of water, which requires electricity in vast amounts, since the process is (currently) inefficient.
Battery storage is a 'now' solution.

 

[pigface]

But what about a battery electric car with an easily removable and swappable battery? Instead of charging, you go to a station and get the low battery swapped for a charged one - a ten minute procedure if the cars were built with that in mind. Maybe you don't even own the battery - you just rent the use of it - much like with LPG cylinders.

 

[me203]

Hydrogen makes more sense in many ways but for 2 problems:

Hydrogen is obtained either from fossil fuels, so one might as well use the fossil fuel directly, or it comes from the electrolysis of water, which requires electricity in vast amounts, since the process is (currently) inefficient.
Battery storage is a 'now' solution.

This thought raises a couple of questions for me. #1: as for fossil fuels, there is the argument that realistically we'll be stuck with fossil fuels one way or another. Of course, the people pushing electrification with a vengeance have a pipe dream that somehow we can go green overnight with power generation.

#2: with electrolysis, could ways be devised of making it more efficient be more realistic in a reasonable time frame than the dreams of batteries that quickly charge and give good range?

 

[me203]

swappable battery?

Might be a good way to address battery issues.

Although--and I know I'm cynical--I woudn't hold my breath waiting. I have feeling car makers would hate this idea, since they'd like the idea of cars getting thrown away because of a bad battery. And we have a government that cares more about corporate interests than the itnerests of us mere citizens.

 

[Kahaih]

But what about a battery electric car with an easily removable and swappable battery? Instead of charging, you go to a station and get the low battery swapped for a charged one - a ten minute procedure if the cars were built with that in mind. Maybe you don't even own the battery - you just rent the use of it - much like with LPG cylinders.

Just back into a service bay and have a rent boy give it to you in the rear?

 

[USEDCAR]

Yes. And I've also heard the concerns about the environmental impact of mining the materials needed for the batteries.

And there is no "if" the battery goes--the only question is when it needs to be replaced. I half think as I write this that if the government forces through electric cars, they should also force car makers to have a long warranty on batteries so the buyer can actually rely on a reasonable service life. But I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

I've heard arguments, too, for other approaches, such as hydrogen cell. Hydrogen does require care, since it's so explosive, but I have to wonder if it couldn't be more viable for a fast transition.

The current approach that they seem hell bent to shove down our throats seems likely to be a collosal disaster. Is government idealistic thinking things will work out? Or are those who say that it's intended (for whatever reason) to be a huge disaster correct?

Also the power grids won't be able to handle tons of people plugging in their cars at night to charge. How do the cars make out during the extreme winter and summer.

They are after cars,gas stoves,heaters and washer machines but land is always being tear down to built houses and shopping centers. My state the locals protested because they wanted to tear down a large section of the woods to put up a warehouse.