Judging by the expositions of car dealerships in recent years and the construction of more and more new battery factories, we can no longer get away from electric vehicles. However, this is not their first attempt to conquer the world. Why did the previous ones fail?
This whole story began not today, but almost two centuries ago. Then no one thought about ecology.
As with many important inventions, the authorship of the first electric vehicle is attributed to different people. We only know for certain that it happened a long time ago.
Electric cars in the 19th century
Back in 1828, the Hungarian physicist Anjos Istvan Jedlik made a wheeled carriage move with the help of an electric motor he built himself. Already at the beginning of the next decade, the Scotsman Robert Anderson built a crew working on disposable batteries, and in 1834 the Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a self-propelled device capable of operating from the electrical network.
Anjosh Istvan Yedlik. Photo: University of Budapest.
The really serious impetus for the development of electric vehicles was the invention in 1859 by Gaston Planté of the rechargeable lead-acid battery. A little twenty years later, Camille Alphonse Faure significantly increased the efficiency of batteries and developed technologies for their production on an industrial scale.
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Gaston Plante.
Another Frenchman, Gustave Trouvet, brought his electrified three-wheeled carriage to the streets of Paris in 1881. This officially recognized first electric car could accelerate to 12 km / h and travel up to 26 km on a single charge. And the world had to wait four more years for the appearance of the gasoline car of Karl Benz.
Electric cars at the turn of the century
By the end of the 19th century, it seemed that electric cars had a long and happy future. They were not only bought by private traders, but also tried to use them to make money. In 1897, inventor Walter Charles Bercy built 75 electric cabs for the London taxi.
Among other things, electric cabs were remembered for a kind of buzzing, receiving, among other things, the nickname "Hummingbird" for this.
The current races of electric cars at the Nurburgring are also not news. If anything, the first car that managed to accelerate over 100 km / h was driven by two electric motors. Some sources claim that the record was set on April 29, others point to May 1 of the same 1899.
The main thing is that everyone agrees on one thing - in Asher, near Paris, the Belgian Camille Zhenatzi fired up his cigar-shaped 67-strong projectile to 105.882 km / h. It didn't work on the first try. The first five ended unsuccessfully. The car could not or did not want to accelerate to a record speed, for which, in fact, it acquired its legendary nickname La Jamais Content, that is, “Ever dissatisfied”.
Camille Zhenatzi at La Jamais Content.
If we are already talking about records, it will not be superfluous to recall the early inventions of Ferdinand Porsche. The 23-year-old Austrian hired by Lohner has designed a revolutionary prototype with electric motors embedded in the wheels.
The Lohner-Porsche design came out not only very original, but also in demand. In 1898 Lohner received his first order. The client turned out to be a certain Hart from British Luton, who did not hesitate to demand that the artist make significant changes to his product.
The car had to work not only on electricity, but also on gasoline, accommodate four passengers and be, on top of that, four-wheel drive.
Such a thing was not only built, but also presented in December 1900 at the Paris exhibition, where in spite of the record "cigar" Zhenatzi was named Toujours Contente. The batteries of the Always Satisfied hybrid alone weighed 1.8 tons, and the car cost 15,000 Austrian crowns. Hart, by the way, was also pleased and ordered in the end another one, albeit one-wheel drive and for 7,950 crowns.
Why did gasoline win?
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, electric cars began to lose ground. Despite speed records, battery-powered cars were mostly slow.
Due to the lack of a developed infrastructure for charging, electric cars could only be used in cities. At the same time, the roads of most countries became more and more suitable for long-distance travel, the explored large reserves of oil drove the price of gasoline, and Henry Ford's invention of the conveyor made cars with internal combustion engines available to the general public. Prices for electric vehicles continued to rise. With comparable power in 1912, they cost almost twice as much as gasoline ones, which, of course, did not make them more in demand. As a result, by the thirties of the last century, out of hundreds of enterprises producing electric cars, only a few remained.
But even one, as we know, can make history. In July 1971, it was the electric car that became the first manned vehicle to travel on the moon.
This space utility vehicle was used during the expeditions of the Apollo
As in the aforementioned Lohner-Porsche apparatus, an electric motor was installed in each of the four wheels of the Moon Tramp. But it weighed only 210 kg, and was powered only by a pair of batteries with a capacity of 121 Ah each. The specified energy was enough to accelerate to 18 km / h and set the lunar speed record.
Modern electric cars have different parameters, of course. For example, the upcoming electric crossover from BMW boasts a total output of 530 hp.
