Electric cars - 1910

[Battis]

These cars were made within a mile or two of my house in the early 1900s. What if they kept making them, and improving the technology...
But, they didn't.
The first pic is an old ad, describing the cars.
One of the guys in the second pic is Thomas Edison.

[William Yanda]

At that time, the technology wasn't ready. In my opinion, it still isn't, but we have come a long way.

[Wolfdog91]

At the time the stuff was so cut throat ..I mean just look. Into what the oil Barron's would to make a buck. Alcohol engines , hemp insted of wood , ect

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[compass will]

We love our ford mach e. It's a local use car which is charged in our garage. If we go on a long trips we take my f150 lariat

[ascast]

what he said ///ll\\\\ I dont believe I could use it for work now 25 miles one way, zero F out side, must deice,defog,heat,head lights. Short detour home for groceries. I doubt it.

[country gent]

There used to be an issue with gas vehicles up into the 60s pre alternator. the generators of the day in all city driving wouldnt always charge the battery. People would have to put a charger on them every few days. Country driving got the engines up to rpm and long enough to charge.

Some things have to be worked out in the real world not on drawing boards or test rooms.

Farm equipment got away with generators because the are mostly ran at a set rpm to provide the right pto and ground speeds.

I do believe the electric vehicles arnt ready to even start replacing gas cars. A lot more needs to be done.

[compass will]

In the era that car came out, they were competing against the horse. What gas engines that were available were crank start, and most ladies were not interested in that (or so i have read)

[challenger_i]

Thumb in palm, pull UP on crank!

As Compas Will stated, they were competing with a hay burner. Oil burners (nasty!), steam-powered, battery powered, alcohol burners (Hey! Wait! Alcohol is for DRINKING!) and then there was that engine that burned a waste product that was almost given away: Gasoline. It all came down to Economics and Convenience. I will bet, in the long run, the same will prevail.

[MUSTANG]

The battery was, and remains the most significant drawback of Electric vehicles. The capacity, by this I mean the amount of work that can be performed, by the Batteries has increased dramatically over time. Unfortunately; the life of batteries has not seen the dramatic increase needed for Electric Vehicles to be acceptable by most drivers. I remember the 1970's and the rechargeable batteries in a "High End" calculator I bought; they were nickel cadmium - but the charge life looked like a 45 degree slope downwards is seemed.

I believe as we see the EV 2nd hand market become more common; we are going to see massive losses of value due to battery life. Found this article on Lithium Battery Life.
I extracted this as the most significant aspect of the article: https://tritekbattery.com/lithium-battery-lifespan-how-many-charging-cycles-can-you-expect/


The maximum number of charging cycles a lithium battery can endure depends on various factors, including the specific type of lithium battery. Different lithium battery chemistries have varying lifespans. For instance:

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries typically offer around 300-500 charging cycles before their capacity starts to degrade noticeably.

Lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries can generally handle 400-600 charging cycles.

Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries are known for their longevity and can endure up to 2000 charging cycles.

It’s important to note that these numbers are approximate estimates and can vary depending on battery quality, usage patterns, and maintenance practices.

Two years ago we gave Son #2 back the Tesla he bought as a gift for Mom because after a couple of months "Testing" the car in the dead of winter it became evident that Montana (or Southern Nevada) were not the best environments for EV's in our thinking. Our son had an 80 AMP 220 Recharger installed at his home for the Tesla vehicle. They use it for taking the kids to school, shopping, and commuting to work. Fine for the San Francisco Bay area where the climatic conditions are relatively moderate and the distances traveled a day are less than 100 miles total - providing a high amp circuit for charging is available and the vehicle can sit idle overnight - would not see it as an "UBER EATS" solution. Not the vehicle to jump into and go to Tahoe from San Fran Bay in my opinion either.

The EV car manufacturers also recomend only charging the EV's to 80%; sure puts some range limitations in place to extend battery life.

[country gent]

The big thing EVs need to overcome and most people dont think about this is the "planning" thats needed. Like steam powered you need to schedule / plan in the charging for each days needs.

There were electric, steam, and early internal combustion engines. ICE was the only one that didnt require planning or a lead time to use. Electrics needed charged, steam had to be fired and water brought to boil.

Weight and materials also came into the picture.

Having been in a power wheel chair for a few years now, the "planning" is a real issue. Forget to charge and when you need it its down.. A brown out or outage when charging and your off schedule and struggling. Only one chair uses lithium batteries my geo chair thats a light weight travel chair. My Invo chair is AGM batteries and is down to around 9 hours on a overnight charge. It will need 2 batteries here shortly probably be around $300 for the pair. The trac chair which is an all terrain rough duty chair. I put 2 batteries in it 2 years ago that was $800.00 for the pair of AGMs. Its going to need them replaced again in a year or so.
As I stated People will have to learn to "plan" in trips and travel with the EVs something they dont with ICE. They will have to give up the convenience of the quick fill ups and long range of the ICEs.

[MaryB]

Battery tech is not up to par yet... need to get away from chemistries that use minerals we need to source from enemies(MAJOR security risk)! There are some promising chemistries coming up but none are ready for prime time yet, and none give better cold weather performance. In deep cold like I had last week a Tesla battery life would be halved by the cold, halved again needing to run the cabin heater full blast... then good luck getting it to charge because they will not charge when cold! So take a 250 mile range, cut in half to 125, cut in half again to 62.5... my average round trip is 60 miles... to close for comfort!

I do not think battery is the future, cleaner burning gas engines, hydrogen, propane(Co-op here is all propane trucks)... batteries need to come a very long ways to compete as people are discovering. And they are NOT cleaner environmentally. They are WORSE than a gas engine powered car with all the toxic chemicals in them, the mining needed to get those chemicals... steel is recycled over and over adding new as needed to keep the chemistry right, nobody is commercially recycling lithium batteries, they are toxic waste... even the plastics in modern cars gets recycled/reused...

[murf205]

I asked the local Ford dealer how much it would cost to replace the battery on an EV and they said that the only one they had replaced was 1 of the batteries on an E Mustang and it was $8000 and that Ford warrants the battery for 8 yrs. I wonder if they charge you for the usage at, say 6 yrs of use? compass will, I hope you don't have to find these questions out. BTW, the dealer said that there were 2 batteries in that car. IF....what they told me is true, after 8 yrs, I would take a beating on the value of the car. That's a shame because people who have them say they will FLY!

[Tall]

In1910 the electric car was useless outside of a major city. Electricity did not exist outside major cities. Roads were poor outside major cities, and electric vehicles were very heavy and would get stuck. Gasoline powered vehicles were and still are more practical, and far cheaper to operate.

[Battis]

The Good Roads Movement was pushed by bicycle enthusiasts in the 1880s-1890s, long before automobiles were in use. The biggest threats to bikes back then were horseshoe nails.
Apparently "fossil fuels" have been discovered on one of Saturn's moons, throwing doubt on the fossil fuels coming from decayed dinosaurs, plants, etc.

[challenger_i]

They simply haven't found any dyno fossils on Saturn's moon, yet. The Jury is still out... :p

[elmacgyver0]

The people who are really going to get screwed with all these wonderful EV cars are the low-income people who can only afford to buy older used vehicles.
The high rollers will buy them new and just before the batteries give out trade them in for the little people to buy.

[challenger_i]

Not the "High Rollers" I have observed. I know people that trade every three years, like clockwork. And then, fuss because their payments are so high...

[Thumbcocker]

Remember the old joke from the 60s? Electric car drove from New York to L.A. for $1.49 in electricity. The extension cord cost $3,000,000.

[Tall]

The Good Roads Movement was pushed by bicycle enthusiasts in the 1880s-1890s, long before automobiles were in use.

The "Good Roads Movement" might have had grand intentions but the results were that paved roads existed in cities and not beyond.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/09/16/fact-check-detroit-wasnt-the-first-city-to-pave-its-roads-in-concrete

[Battis]

It had to start somewhere, and apparently the Good Road Movement began with bicycles, which is what I said above.

"Horatio Earle is known as the "Father of Good Roads". Quoting from Earle's 1929 autobiography: "I often hear now-a-days, the automobile instigated good roads; that the automobile is the parent of good roads. Well, the truth is, the bicycle is the father of the good roads movement in this country."

[firefly1957]

Battery only powered cars will never do for travel some kind of a hybrid platform might work . Using electric motors for drive does have a place todays hybrid uses piston engines I would think a turbine would be much better to charge a smaller battery pack for surges of energy like passing and hill climbing .
A standardized removable battery would help with the possibility of a electric car being usable it would take some big infrastructure .
GM made "TAG VEHICLES" into the 1990's they were sent out with small engine transmission that was returned from a company that made them all electric . Phone and power companies were the big buyers but they fell out of favor as they could not keep work crews heated in the winter .

[challenger_i]

Turbines are thirsty beasts. Once you get below about 100shp, the fuel burn levels out at about 15 gallons per hour.

[Rockindaddy]

What about us poor saps that pay a pile of road tax with every gallon of gas and diesel. Electric cars do not pay any road tax but enjoy use of our roads and highways. Chucky Schumer and congress will figure out how to fleece the EV car owners.

[challenger_i]

The Government is already tackling that pile, and the Greenies are screaming bloody murder! They say it isn't fair.