During the first decade of the 1900s, many engineering improvements were made in both electric-powered and gasoline-internal combustion engine vehicles. From their inception, electric vehicles were clean, silent, and simple to operate. Batteries were continually improved, and vehicle range grew to up to 100 miles between battery charges, depending on the speed driven and the terrain encountered. Another advantage of electric vehicles was that electric motors enjoy a relatively constant relationship of torque to revolutions per minute (RPM). Thus, an electric motor can develop maximum torque as its rotor begins to rotate, making a mechanical transmission unnecessary. However, electric vehicles remained severely hampered by the slow and uneven spread of electric power and the resulting limited availability of battery charging stations. Electrics also had relatively low cruising speed, suffered reduced range if operated at maximum speed, and required frequent battery maintenance.

Gasoline-powered cars, originally unreliable, noisy and smelly, were also greatly improved during this period. Technology advanced as hundreds of individuals and companies began designing and building gasoline engines and automobiles for personal use or for sale. A particular weak point had been the mechanical transmission, required because gasoline-fueled engines develop little torque at low RPM. The transmission allows the engine to turn fast enough at a low speed to develop the torque needed to move the vehicle. Despite improvements in transmissions and other components, one remaining major shortcoming of the gasoline-fueled engine was the hand cranking of the engine. That task required a strong arm and often resulted in a sprained or broken wrist if the crank kicked back and the unlucky operator was not careful.

As more paved, or at least minimally improved, roads became available early in the 1900s, the public's yearning to go places grew. The natural advantages of power and speed of the now more reliable gasoline engine confirmed that electrics could not compete as touring vehicles. The widespread availability of gasoline and other automotive services at an early date offered operators of gasoline-powered vehicles essentially unlimited range and flexibility.

A Watershed Year

Ford introduced four new models in 1906, ranging in price from US$600– $2,800. In 1907, Ford decided to fulfill his dream of democratizing the car and concentrated all of his energy on what became the Model T. He knew that the car had to be simple and easy to operate and maintain and that he had to produce large numbers cheaply. The cost savings realized would make the car affordable for an ever-growing customer base. Commercial production began in late 1908, and a total of 10,607 cars were sold in the first 12 months. The Model T conclusively linked the automobile and the gasoline-fueled engine and helped assure the ultimate demise of early electric vehicles.

The four-cylinder Model T engine developed 22.5 horsepower and had wide tolerances for bearings, shafts, and gears, making it simple to work on without professional help or specialized tools. The planetary transmission providing two forward speeds and one reverse speed and the single-piece engine block casting were successful innovations. Instead of a storage battery, a magneto generated electric current for ignition. A series of permanent magnets were bolted to the front face of the flywheel and a series of flat insulator coils were placed opposite the magnets. As the flywheel turned, the electric energy produced passed through a low-voltage timing device to four trembler coils that raised the voltage enough for ignition.

At first, Ford sold the Model T for about US$850 with such items as headlights costing extra. Over time, design and engineering improvements were made, simplifications (such as limiting paint color availability to black) introduced, and manufacturing efficiencies implemented. These measures eventually reduced vehicle production time by a factor of eight and continually allowed Ford to reduce the cost to produce the vehicle and the price to the buyer. By the mid-1920s, some Model T models sold for less than US$300. Several body styles were offered, including a closed two-door sedan first sold in 1915, but the open four-door touring car remained the most popular model.

Approximately 15 million Model T Fords were produced from late 1908 to 1927. While constantly refined, the car remained basically unchanged until production ended. Technological advances in the automotive industry were so rapid in the early decades of the 1900s that the Model T was old-fashioned by the early teens. Ironically, Ford developed and was employing some of the world's most advanced production techniques to produce an unsophisticated and progressively outdated car. However, the Model T's reliability and very low price allowed Ford to maintain significant market share until other carmakers, using Ford-pioneered manufacturing methods, were able to reduce the unit cost and price of newer, more advanced, and more fashionable models. In 1927, the Model T finally gave way to the completely redesigned Model A Ford that was successfully marketed from 1928 to 1931.

Figure 1 shows an unrestored 1926 Model T touring car that is fully operational and completely original down to its black paint and first set of 1926 California license plates. This car is owned, maintained, and frequently driven by John Theotonio of Hamilton, New Jersey.

The production and sale of gasoline-fueled vehicles increased rapidly with the introduction of the Model T Ford in late 1908. Manufacturers and other proponents of electric vehicles soon realized that, to survive, electric vehicles would need a greatly improved and expanded network of battery charging stations and a well-defined niche in the overall automotive market.

Efforts to Expand the Battery Charging Infrastructure

Recognizing the potential synergism between electric vehicles and electric utilities, the Electric Vehicle and Central Station Association was formed in 1909 to promote the spread of battery charging infrastructure. Also, at about the same time, the Electric Vehicle Association of America (EVAA), a trade group of vehicle manufacturers, and the National Electric Light Association (NELA), the central station trade group, began to hold joint meetings and undertake joint activities. Many spoke in favor of creating the network of recharging facilities needed to make the electric car truly successful. Charles P. Steinmetz, the legendary electrical engineer and scientist at General Electric, delivered an address at the June 1914 NELA convention in Philadelphia in which he urged the electric utility industry to take the initiative and to assume control of the battery charging business. Speaking in that same year before an EVAA meeting in New York City, Steinmetz called on the vehicle manufacturers to build an inexpensive basic car that would be the electric equivalent of the immensely successful Model T Ford.

Steinmetz contributed to the effort by deed as well as by word. He participated in the design of the Dey electric runabout manufactured briefly in New York City. He designed a compact double-rotor motor that was an integral part of the rear axle. This brilliant development obviated the need for a mechanical differential and driveshaft and resulted in a rear axle assembly weighing only about 200 pounds. The entire vehicle, including battery, weighed only 1,400 pounds and sold in 1917 for US$985. By that time, however, customer interest in electric vehicles was low, and Dey went out of business in less than a year.

Despite the efforts of those in- volved, electrification and the provision of battery charging stations outside of major cities and sizeable towns remained slow and uneven. While some utilities actively sought off-peak battery recharging business, many others remained indifferent. Conflict developed between the two groups. The electric utilities criticized the vehicle manufacturers for not producing inexpensive electric cars, and the manufacturers alleged that the utilities were just not interested in establishing enough recharging stations. In the end, electric vehicles remained impractical in areas outside of major cities, well-developed towns, and their suburbs.

Redefining the Early Electric Vehicle

Beginning in 1909, much advertising was directed specifically at the women, many of whom favored the clean, quiet, easy to operate electrics that, significantly, did not have to be started with a hand crank as did gasoline-powered cars. Marketing was also aimed at doctors and others who needed to travel within urbanized areas and who wanted a reliable, efficient vehicle. A number of body styles were offered from open roadsters to closed all-weather coupes and broughams. Many of these cars, especially those sold for use by wealthy ladies, were smartly styled and were equipped with lavish upholstery, silk curtains, cut glass flower vases, smoking sets, reading lights and other fashionable appointments. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show representative advertisements for two 1912 Detroit electrics produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company.

Given its new market focus, sales of electric vehicles increased in the early teens of the 20th century. Before 1910, sales did not exceed about 3,000 electric cars per year. Sales increased to about 4,500 in 1910 and peaked at more than 6,000 vehicles, made by some two dozen manufacturers, in 1912. About the same number of electric vehicles were sold in 1913, but sales slipped in 1914 and continued to decline thereafter. In 1912, electrics constituted only about one percent of the U.S. automotive market. During 1912 and 1913, Ford alone sold 82,388 and 182,809 Model T cars, respectively. In the years of peak sales, electric cars cost between US$850 for a Studebaker Stanhope to US$5,500 for a Borland-Grannis Limousine. Most of the 80 or so models offered in those years cost between US$1,800 and US$3,600 at a time when a Model T Ford touring car could be had for less than US$700 and a fine home in the suburbs cost US$5,000. To the end, the early electric automobile remained a low production, high unit cost vehicle.

In January 1914, Henry Ford announced that he and Thomas Edison were developing an electric car that would have a range of 100 miles and would sell for between US$600 and US$1,000. This news caused a flurry of interest in the trade and popular press. Electrical World and other publications asserted that, at long last, there was promise of an electric vehicle that would offer both low price and quantity production. Ford built and tested two electric cars, but performance was unimpressive. Little more development work was done after 1915, the public announcements and public interest subsided, and the project was quietly abandoned. Ford, always convinced that the gasoline-fueled car would become and remain dominant, probably correctly concluded that the potential market for any electric car was very small.

The Final Blow to Early Electric Vehicles

Conventional wisdom dictated that a gasoline engine could not be started with an electric motor because the motor would have to be enormous and would require very large batteries. All attempts to develop an electric starter since 1896 had failed to solve this problem. Charles F. Kettering, an electrical engineer, had worked for the National Cash Register Company and had invented a motorized cash register using a small electric motor that he overloaded for the brief period that it operated. In 1909, Kettering left National Cash Register and, with several others, set up the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company known, then as now, simply as Delco. By 1910, Cadillac and several other carmakers were using Delco improved ignition systems. Kettering, then turned his attention to the problem of the automotive electric self-starter. By using the principle of his cash register invention, he developed a small electric motor that consumed very high power in short bursts from a lead-acid battery to turn over the engine. The battery would then be recharged by the starter motor now acting as a generator. Thus, the storage battery could also supply electricity for spark ignition and for lighting. This neatly solved several problems simultaneously. Within a year, Kettering developed a voltage regulator to maintain battery charge and had refined and perfected his system.

Cadillac ordered 12,000 starting, ignition and lighting systems from Delco in November 1911. These were installed on the 1912 Cadillac cars, the first car to enjoy electric self-starting. Orders from other manufacturers quickly followed. Ironically, the last advantage of the electric vehicle was overcome by an electrical engineer, and the manufacturers of gasoline-fueled vehicles soon became a huge market for electric storage batteries, motors, light bulbs, and other electrical components. This demand soon dwarfed the consumption of electrical apparatus and components by the electric carmakers.

The End of an Era

Electric delivery trucks and heavy cargo and work trucks, employed in urban areas, remained in vogue for a longer period. These vehicles were generally supported by the maintenance and recharging infrastructure needed to keep them efficient and on the road. They were especially useful where high speed was not possible or called for and where frequent stops and starts within a relatively small radius was the norm. In addition, some electric utilities used a relatively large number of electric line and service trucks that contributed to load leveling through recharging at company facilities at off-peak times. For example, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, based in New Jersey, acquired 49 new electric trucks during the 1920s. These vehicles, as shown in Figure 4, had a top speed of 15 miles per hour and were suited to such tasks as distribution utility line work and street lighting maintenance in urban areas.

Overall, in 1928, there were 6,645 electric trucks in use with lead-acid batteries and some 5,795 similar trucks using Edison nickel-iron-alkaline batteries. Most of these trucks were originally bought to replace horses and wagons. Ironically, they helped rid cities of horse-drawn vehicles, thereby contributing to increased speed of travel. As a result, electric trucks became less able to compete with speedier gasoline and diesel-powered trucks, and almost all eventually disappeared.

Epilogue

For Further Reading

E.L. Throm and J.S. Crenshaw, Popular Mechanics Auto Album. Chicago, IL: Popular Mechanics, 1952.

R. Conot, A Streak of Luck. New York: Seaview, 1979.

G. Zorpette, "The smart hybrid," IEEE Spectr., vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 44–49, Jan. 2004.

J. Voelcker, "Top 10 tech cars–Here come the hybrids," IEEE Spectr., vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 28–35, Mar. 2004.