First Electric tricycle

[the_killjoy]

And the first early ones weren't just low powered toys:


The first known electric car was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen. It was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Davidson later built a larger locomotive named Galvani, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drivereluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators. It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour for a distance of one and a half miles

 

[SteveRuss]

Wow...

 

[Ajax]

Imagine the advancements in elecric transport if there had been the same 'encouragement' as the petrol engine.

 

[Alan Quay]

My friends (elderly and slightly eccentric) father drives around in an ancient 2 sester british sports car. I could be wrong, but I think its pre-war.

 

[flecc]

Imagine the advancements in elecric transport if there had been the same 'encouragement' as the petrol engine.

I'm afraid I've never bought that argument. Early in the development of the motor vehicle it was the electric ones that were dominant, simply because they were better and more reliable.

Everything stood in their favour, but as the ic engine vehicle developers struggled to catch up, the independent electric ones couldn't advance because the batteries weren't good enough so the ic engines overtook.

Not so with e-vehicles using external power feed though, trolleybuses and trams easily competed with ic despite the large infrastucture need, and in rail it's electric that now dominates worldwide.

So there's been no developmental bias against electric vehicles. For a century the boffins have struggled to improve batteries, but it's an unrewarding task. Even now in the largest high current battery market, we are still using an over hundred year old technology, I'm speaking of ic vehicle batteries of course. None of the newer battery types are acceptable, due to life, cost, safety and reliability factors.
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