A Brief History of Electric Vehicles

Robert Anderson fashioned a motorized carriage in Scotland during the 1830s. His invention relied upon primary cells. These batteries discharged their current once and then required replacement by the operator. The mechanism lacked the endurance of a horse but demonstrated a stillness that the steam engines of that decade could not mimic. The chemical reactions within the lead and acid provided the locomotion. I've spent a lot of late nights thinking about this quiet beginning where the hum of a motor preceded the clatter of the piston.

The Era of the Silent Taxi

William Morrison introduced a six-passenger wagon to the streets of Des Moines in 1890. This vehicle reached a speed of fourteen miles per hour. The popularity of the design grew as urban populations sought relief from the manure and the carcasses associated with horse-drawn transit. Electric cabs soon filled the avenues of New York City and London. Drivers preferred the simplicity of the switch over the complexity of the gearbox. No joke, the electric motor held a third of the market share in the United States before the turn of the century because the machines did not emit smoke or vibrate the teeth of the passengers.

The Baker Motor Vehicle Company produced carriages that appealed to the sensibilities of the era's elite. These cars featured interiors of fine broadcloth and crystal vases for flowers. Women in particular favored the electric motor because it did not require the physical exertion of a hand crank. The hand crank's peril was well known for breaking wrists and bruising chests during backfires. The electric ignition allowed for a dignified departure from the curb without the assistance of a mechanic or the accumulation of grease upon a sleeve.

The Ascendance of Crude Oil

Henry Ford changed the trajectory of the industry with the assembly line in 1908. The Model T entered the market at a price that the luxury electric manufacturers could not meet. Gasoline became abundant as the Spindletop geyser in Texas flooded the refineries with cheap fuel. The range of the internal combustion engine expanded as the government paved the highways and built bridges across the wilderness. Electric cars remained tethered to the cities because the rural landscape lacked the wires and the generators necessary to replenish the depleted cells.

Charles Kettering invented the electric starter in 1912. This device utilized a small motor to turn the engine over and removed the primary advantage of the battery-powered fleet. The noise and the exhaust of the gasoline engine became acceptable trade-offs for the ability to travel hundreds of miles between stops. I keep coming back to the irony of an electric component being the very thing that ensured the dominance of the combustion cycle for the next hundred years. The manufacturers of electric cars shuttered their factories as the public embraced the speed and the roar of the petroleum age.

The Search for Efficiency

The 1970s oil crisis forced a reconsideration of the battery. Prices at the pump soared and the scarcity of fuel created long queues at every station. Engineers at American Motors Corporation developed the Amitron to test the viability of lithium batteries. The prototype promised a range of one hundred fifty miles on a single charge. NASA provided research into the physics of the motor and the chemistry of the storage. These efforts did not reach mass production but the blueprints remained in the archives for the next generation of designers.

General Motors produced the EV1 in the 1990s as a response to the mandates of the California Air Resources Board. The car featured a teardrop shape and an aluminum frame to reduce the friction of the wind and the weight of the chassis. Drivers leased the vehicles and praised the instant torque of the acceleration. The reality is that the company eventually reclaimed every unit and crushed the cars in a desert scrapyard despite the protests of the enthusiasts who had grown fond of the electric hum. This event marked a hiatus in the development of the technology until the arrival of the lithium-ion cell.

Tesla Motors introduced the Roadster in 2008. This car utilized thousands of small cells similar to the ones found in laptops to achieve a range that rivaled the gasoline tank. The success of the Model S shifted the perception of the electric motor from a slow utility to a symbol of high performance and technical precision. Modern factories now produce packs with high energy density and motors that operate with a silence that Robert Anderson would recognize. The infrastructure of the charger now populates the parking lots and the rest stops of the continent.