When Scotsman Robert Anderson drove through the streets of his hometown Aberdeen in the 1830s, passers-by must have been utterly astonished. Here was a man driving through the streets in an electrically powered, three-wheeled carriage! Decades before the invention of the combustion engine by Étienne Lenoir (1863) and Carl Benz (1885), Anderson succeeded in developing a “horseless carriage” that reached a speed of 12 km/h using an electric motor.
First electric motors with disposable batteries
However, unlike today’s TWIKE, Anderson’s prototype still used fossil fuels. He relied on crude oil to generate electricity in his disposable battery. In contrast to the gasoline-powered vehicles that emerged later, Anderson’s electric car was nevertheless an absolutely environmentally friendly vehicle.
Other inventors of this era used electromagnets (components of electric motors) and batteries to power electric vehicles. The progress of electric vehicles depends almost exclusively on the development of the battery. It was not until the 1880s and 1890s that, several decades after Anderson’s first electric vehicle and after Fauré’s improvement of the lead battery, electric cars became increasingly popular in the United States and Europe.
1888: An electric car “Made in Germany” appears
Another pioneer of electric mobility came from France. In 1881, Gustave Trouvé designed his “Trouvé Tricycle,” also an electrically powered three-wheeled vehicle. It was powered by two motors and supported by energy from several lead batteries. At the time, this was enough for a speed of 18 km/h and a range of up to 26 kilometers—enough for an extensive joyride through Paris.
In Germany, the first electric car appeared in 1888, but this time it had four wheels. The “Flocken electric car,” named after its inventor Andreas Flocken, is produced in Coburg and is reminiscent in its design still very strongly of a horse-drawn carriage. As the starting point for its construction, a high-wheeled, iron-wheeled carriage (high center of gravity, narrow track width, turntable steering etc). The electric motor had a power output of 0.9 kW, which was transferred to the rear axle via leather belts. a45> the rear axle via a leather belt. This enabled the “Flocken electric car” to reach speeds of up to 15 km/h.
Around 1900, gasoline-powered cars prevailed over electric cars.
In 1898, an electric car broke the 100 km/h barrier for the first time. The vehicle “La Jamais Contente” by Belgian engineer and racing driver Camille Jenatzy, which visually resembles a rocket on wheels, sets the speed record. However, despite their advantages that still exist today (easy operation, environmental friendliness, and low noise pollution), electric cars will not prevail in the coming years.
However, the reason for this is not so much the short range. Rather, it is the heavy weight of the batteries and an invention by American Charles F. Kettering. In 1911, he developed the first starter motor, which made it easy to start combustion engines – unlike the electric motors of the time. Another argument against electric cars at the time was the complex charging process. Unlike today, stationary generators were still needed for this purpose.
