Automotive Technological Innovation, Then and Now
One of the things I find most interesting about the kinds of automobiles we feature here is the number of companies looking to make electric cars. Before 1905 the service station did not exist. So it made sense to use a power source that was readily available to those who were most likely to purchase an automobile; rich folks. A new car in 1900 cost as much, if not more, than the price of the average home. The people who could afford a new car also, most likely, already had electricity in their homes, making electric power for automobiles seem like an obvious choice.
This setup had an advertised range of anywhere between 50 and 125 miles. Reports of 200 miles were made, just not by the manufacturer.
One of the technologies that parallels what we are seeing today is that of the battery. The Detroit Electric offered two kinds of batteries; lead acid and what they called Edison nickel-steel. Each had advantages over the other. The lead-acid battery is basically the same as used today in almost all automobiles and we all know its limitations; over-charging/discharging causes problems, finite duty cycle, weight, poor performance in cold weather. It seems that the Edison Nickel-Steel battery was used because to mitigates all of those concerns to a certain degree. Also having the Edison name on the batteries at that time no doubt added a touch of refinement in the eye of a potential buyer.
It looks like the engineers almost got to the point of realizing that the motor could just be a part of the drive line, but never quite got there.
In case you’re wondering the Nickel-Steel battery is still around today (referred to as nickel iron batteries) and seems to be positioned for usage as storage of excess power generated via solar panels. As it turns out the negatives for nickel-iron batteries make them not very useful when it comes to automobiles. Most notability is the issue with off-gassing. These batteries produce both hydrogen and oxygen that needs to be exhausted. Nickel-iron batteries need a way to replenish lost water (with distilled water) on the regular. Which for a car would mean that the batteries need to be maintained at least twice a month, if not more.
It would have been interesting to see where cars like The Detroit Electric could have driven the automotive industry, but they didn’t make it to the other side of World War 2, making them just another what-if in the history of the automobile.
