General motors inspired elon musk to create tesla, and the first e-golf was around back in 1976: seven curious facts about electric cars you didn’t know yet
Electric cars are often presented as a technical innovation. But their history goes back to the 19th century. century back. Around 1900, they were even more successful than vehicles with gasoline engines.
However, from the 1920s onward, demand fell sharply and the type of drive almost died out. For decades, prototypes and small-series models were the height of emotion.
From the nineties onward, environmental awareness grew among people and, to some extent, also among politicians. Since then, manufacturers have been devoting more attention to the topic again. Tesla has finally helped the drive to make a comeback.
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Within the automotive industry, all the signs are now pointing to electric vehicles. In view of climate change and the resulting public and political pressure, more and more carmakers are making the switch. Gasoline and diesel cars, which have dominated the market for decades, are becoming less and less important, while manufacturers have almost unanimously agreed that they will drive battery-electric cars into the future.
Today, the virtually silent electric drive is often regarded as a new technology and is advertised as such by the brands. In the media, Tesla mostly gets the credit for the triumph of the electric vehicle (EV). It may now be the first to offer a range suitable for long distances and, when it comes to acceleration, to outrun even cars with large-volume gasoline engines. Nevertheless, they are not a new invention. Here are seven facts about e-cars that show that their history began much earlier.
1. Electric vehicles have been around longer than gasoline-powered cars
Gottlieb daimler and karl benz are today regarded as the inventors of the automobile. But this only applies to four-wheeled vehicles with gasoline engines. Steam and electric cars existed long before 1886. While the former was already in use in the 19th century. While electric cars were chugging across the countryside in the nineteenth century, the first vehicle powered by electricity was put on its wheels as early as 1839 by the Scottish inventor Robert Anderson.
German engineers were also early adopters of the technology. In 1888, the "flocken electric car" was built in coburg, Upper Franconia. It was the first four-wheeled electric vehicle, topped out at 15 km/h, and can be considered the forerunner of all new electric vehicles.
2. The first "porsche" was purely electric
Ferdinand porsche is usually associated with the VW beetle he developed or the sports car company of the same name that he founded after the second world war. Both the volkswagen and the later 356 and 911 sports coupes are known for their characteristic sounding boxer engines.
In the early days of his work, however, the Czech-Austrian engineer was primarily dedicated to e-mobility. In 1896, for example, he invented the electric wheel hub motor – a patented technology that is still widely used today. Three years later, he joined the lohner-Werke in vienna, where he developed his first electric car. In 1902, he developed the world’s first hybrid drive for the company. The latter did not celebrate its breakthrough until more than a hundred years later.
3. An electric car breaks the 100 km/h mark for the first time
In the early days of the automobile, the electric drive was in part superior to the internal combustion engine, which became apparent with the help of several record-breaking runs. In 1898, the belgian racing driver camille jenatzy developed "la jamais contente" (the never satisfied), a torpedo-shaped single-seater that was exceptionally aerodynamic for its time. Two 25 kW electric motors, each powered by a lead battery, provided the propulsion.
On 29. in april 1899, the bizarre-looking vehicle reached a top speed of 105.882 km/h on a stretch of road near paris. The "la jamais contente" thus went down in history as the first car to reach speeds of over 100 km/h. Around two years later, the world record was taken back from him by a steam car called an "osterei" (easter egg).
4. Around 1900, there were more electric cars than gasoline-powered ones in the u.S
At the beginning of the last century, electric cars were anything but a passing fad. Especially in the USA they enjoyed great popularity. In 1900, there were around 34.000 units on the road, which corresponded to a total share of 38 percent. By today’s standards, the total number of electric vehicles at the time may be tiny, but at the time, the automobile as a whole was still in its infancy and barely widespread.
By way of comparison, steam-powered cars dominated the market at the time with a share of 40 percent, while gasoline-powered cars accounted for only 22 percent of the total. In the country’s metropolises, the share of e-cars was even higher in some cases, as the small range of around 100 kilometers in inner-city traffic did not have such an impact.
in 1912, american electric car production reached a record level of almost 34 percent.000 new vehicles peaked for the time being. From the 1920s onward, the drive system disappeared almost completely into oblivion for decades. The reasons for this were many and varied. On the one hand, the quiet, simply constructed and easy-to-operate electric cars had an image problem. People wanted models that represented pure adventure and at the same time thrilled them with their mechanics and sound.
In addition, the short range made the electric car almost completely unusable, especially in rural areas. The introduction of the electric starter made manual cranking obsolete, making the cars with internal combustion engines much more practical and convenient. With ford’s model T, the first million-seller in automotive history, the gasoline-powered passenger car finally became affordable and suitable for mass production.
5. BMW electrified the 1972 olympics
In the period between the decline of e-mobility and its comeback in the new millennium, only a few manufacturers addressed the issue. And for the most part, they left it at test vehicles, which were never intended for large-scale production anyway. This was also the situation at BMW when they began equipping two BMW 1602s with an electric motor and varta batteries in the late sixties. The two silent members of the "new class" were not only tested on a shielded company site, but were also used for publicity purposes at the 1972 summer olympics.
Bmw’s 32 kW electric sedans were used as shuttles for official events and as camera and escort vehicles for marathons. However, the cars were not released to the public, which is hardly surprising in view of their poor performance and short range. Since their battery packs weighed 350 kilograms each, the prototypes could only top out at 100 km/h, while they ran out of juice after 60 kilometers at the most.
6. There was already a VW E-golf 40 years ago
Under the leadership of chairman of the board herbert diess, VW is really stepping on the gas in terms of electrification. The austrian wants not only to expand the all-electric ID model family, but in the long term to overtake tesla and build volkswagen into the world’s largest e-car manufacturer. Things got serious for the first time with the electric version of the previous golf generation.
But even the original Golf was already available with an electric drive system. As early as 1976, two years after the introduction of the new series, the carmaker replaced the 75-hp four-cylinder engine with an electric motor in some models. The reason for the research project was that the first oil crisis had shown manufacturers that they might have to look for alternatives.
Over the next five years, VW continued to develop the e-golf. In 1981, the citystromer, a small-series model based on the same concept, was produced. The 25 cars used in a field test covered a distance of about 60 kilometers on one battery charge. In 1985, VW launched a second generation based on the Golf Two, which adopted the technology of the predecessor. This time, however, 70 cars were built, which were mainly used by energy suppliers for customer services. Renault also built electric small-series vehicles in the seventies. The french retooled the small car R5.
7. General motors persuaded elon musk to build e-cars
In the early 1990s, the U.S. state of California introduced a law aimed at increasing the proportion of zero-emission cars. The major U.S. companies were then forced to reluctantly devote themselves to the development of e-cars. In 1996, General motors introduced the EV1, the world’s most aerodynamically advanced car in the world. The two-seater was not offered for sale, but only leased by the GM subsidiary to 800 selected customers. Within three years, a total of 1.117 units produced.
The EV1 had an electric motor on each front wheel. Together, they accelerated the 1.3-ton vehicle to a limited 129 km/h. Early examples had a range of around 110 kilometers, the beta version delivered in 1999 managed 225 kilometers. The U.S. company wanted to avoid having to build up a supply of spare parts for the internally unloved model and had almost all of them scrapped at the end of the three-year leasing period. Fans of the model protested against it and elon musk was also angered by the action. He later told journalists that the big companies had deliberately tried to kill the electric car. This is what prompted him to set up his own e-car production facility.