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Funny that you mention the Detroit Electric. We have a very nice one in our museum. I use it to show guests that in may cases, automotive technologies that we think are new are just those that we forgot about and rediscovered. Just like an electric today, it had an overnight charger that was installed in the garage. “Twist and go” hand grip throttle much like a motorcycle.
Marketed mainly to women for their mechanical simplicity. Notice the tall roof, as women’s fashions of the day included tall, ornate hats.
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(02-24-2021, 04:34 PM)Jfro5687_imp Wrote: Funny how as you grow older so many things in life seem to go full circle. Some of the very first cars were electric, like 100 years ago, I just Googled and found the above, a Detroit Model D. That didn’t last.
In the 70’s and 80’s in the UK there was a thing called ‘Economy 7’ home heating that was pushed/promoted heavily. The idea was if you joined the scheme you paid less for electricity overnight and used it to heat up (brick) storage heaters bolted to the walls inside your home. Come daytime the power went off but the hot bricks kept giving off warmth, until night time and the cycle repeated itself. Bought our first house in 1991 and it had these things. Awful. Total crap. Gave it a year to see if we could get used to it but didn’t. It was very very expensive and they didn’t warm the home enough. Like blowing on a candle. So had a firm tear the lot out and had oil central heating installed instead (no gas in the village). Never looked back.
So, the point being, unless and until they (Governments) get the infrastructure right none of this stuff is gonna work.
A few major reasons for the short era of the first electric cars:
* The rise of the oil industry.
* Battery maintenance was onerous in the day.
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(02-24-2021, 10:09 PM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: Funny that you mention the Detroit Electric. We have a very nice one in our museum. I use it to show guests that in may cases, automotive technologies that we think are new are just those that we forgot about and rediscovered. Just like an electric today, it had an overnight charger that was installed in the garage. “Twist and go” hand grip throttle much like a motorcycle.
Marketed mainly to women for their mechanical simplicity. Notice the tall roof, as women’s fashions of the day included tall, ornate hats.
Haha, I assume that marketing guys got away with that back in the old pre-Grrrl-power days!
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(02-25-2021, 03:52 AM)bioman_imp Wrote: (02-24-2021, 10:09 PM)Gone in 60_imp Wrote: Funny that you mention the Detroit Electric. We have a very nice one in our museum. I use it to show guests that in may cases, automotive technologies that we think are new are just those that we forgot about and rediscovered. Just like an electric today, it had an overnight charger that was installed in the garage. “Twist and go” hand grip throttle much like a motorcycle.
Marketed mainly to women for their mechanical simplicity. Notice the tall roof, as women’s fashions of the day included tall, ornate hats.
Haha, I assume that marketing guys got away with that back in the old pre-Grrrl-power days!
Haha, I assume that marketing guys got away with that back in the old pre-Grrrl-power days!
The production electric car in North America (circa 1890) pre-dated the suffragette movement (circa 1903) by years. So it appears definitely so.
