By Jack Swift
Earlier this year I wrote a column featuring information on some of the automobile makes that have been manufactured since the late 1800s. There were, of course, steam powered vehicles and electric powered vehicles that were contemporary with gasoline powered cars of that day. But, gasoline powered cars now dominate the automobile scene.
There was a time when electric cars were popular. Those cars had a number of advantages over cars powered with gasoline at that time. Electric cars were relatively silent while gasoline powered cars were noisy. Electric cars were clean compared to gasoline powered cars in that the engines and other parts of the gasoline powered cars were oily and greasy.
Moreover, electric cars were simple to operate. One lever controlled the speed of the car. There was no cranking as had been the case in many of the early automobiles. There was no carburetor to cause trouble and of course oil and gasoline were not a factor in operating the car.
One major disadvantage of electric automobiles was the electric charge in the storage batteries didn’t last long. In the early models, there was only a range of about 40 miles. When electric cars were most popular in the early part of the 1900s, the range had improved to about 100 miles.
Electric cars didn’t go fast either. About 25 miles per hour was the norm. City driving was what the electric cars were used for most. Ease of operation was one of the electric vehicles’ strong points. Some builders provided the electric cars with solid body tires to eliminate flat tires or blowouts.
One use of the electric vehicles was for short distance delivery such as deliveries from store to store or business to business.
Electric cars were easier to build than the gasoline or steam powered cars. Early manufacturers of electric cars paid particular attention to the body design of their cars. Some car bodies were much more eloquent than their gasoline counterparts. There were very expensive ones as well as more moderately priced models.
While early gasoline engines had much to be desired, vast improvements were subsequently made and consequently the gasoline powered automobile became popular bringing about the demise of the electric cars.
Some modern automobile manufacturers have been developing and experimenting with electric cars. Some companies are producing hybrids that use electricity as well as gasoline. With oil prices so volatile these days and the damage environmentalists say gasoline powered cars are doing to planet earth, it seems to me to be a good time for electric cars to make a comeback.
A great deal of progress is being made in storage batteries. Maybe it won’t be too long until there will be charging stations scattered across the nation and electric powered cars will be a common sight on the highways of the good old United States of America.
The Tomahawk - This & That - Mountain City, Tennessee 
Electric cars-an interesting part of automobile history 
Linear Mode
