What Happened to the Electric Vehicles of 1904?

We may be on the verge of a widespread switch in the auto industry from gasoline-powered cars to electric ones.

While wondering if such a massive switch will  occur, I began to look into what happened to the early electric vehicles.  First developed in the 1880s, electric cars were popular for several decades. An electric car won a celebrated race in Chicago in 1895, [1] and in a 1904 brochure, 21 of the 88 automobile models listed were electric. [2]

The disappearance of the electric vehicle illustrates capitalism’s “creative destruction,” a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter to explain how new products and services sweep away the old. (We would use the term “disruptive technology” today. ) Overall, the advent of the “horseless carriage” caused creative destruction,  as it demolished entire industries— horse breeding, horse feed, carriages, saddles and, of course, buggy whips.

But why was the electric car swept up in that destruction? The usual answer is that the technology was inferior.  Batteries were too heavy, too weak, and had to be constantly recharged. True, but I don’t think technology was the main reason.

After all, in the first few years of the twentieth century, gasoline cars were dirty and smelly and broke down a lot—and you had to crank them up to get started.  As one rather smug electric car manufacturer said about gas-powered cars, “You can’t get people to sit over an explosion.”[3] In contrast, EVs were clean, easy to operate, and reliable.

EVs were expensive, but they appealed to the elite. They were the perfect “horseless carriage”: they could carry affluent women from store to store or house to house.

In fact, electric cars became known as the  “woman’s car.”  The association with women may have been a major obstacle, however, because it thrust many adventurous “manly men” toward the internal combustion engine.

The Adventure of Touring

Because the gasoline car could go farther and could handle rutted country roads,  it actually became a different product from its competitors (which for awhile included the steam-powered car).  It became  a “touring car.” Driving around the countryside was an exhilarating new experience for Americans and, over time, it became a major reason for purchasing a  vehicle. Although the electric car producers tried, they couldn’t provide an equal experience.

In 1908, Henry Ford brought out the Model T. He charged $850 for it, half the price (or less) of electric vehicles.  If that wasn’t the death blow for the electric cars, 1911 was,  when Charles Kettering patented an electric starter battery—a much better use for electric technology than EVs themselves, as it turned out.

Complacency 

Electric vehicles were losing momentum by that time.  To some extent it was the fault of the producers and the companies that produced electricity—they were complacent.

Electricity was the exciting new technology, a fantastic innovation, especially as the electric grid began to reach more and more homes. Vehicles were just one market.  The main providers of electricity, the central electric power stations,  also supplied power for cars. They made a dangerous  error: they discouraged home charging stations. In the short run, home stations would have reduced their market,  but in the long run would have spurred car sales.

EV producers themselves seem to have been content with their “elite” home market and their production of delivery trucks, which operated a lot like horse-drawn carriages—short trips and slow speeds. They were sitting ducks for the Model T.

In 1909 the magazine Electrical  World surveyed 4,000 power stations, finding “tremendous inertia” in the promotion of electric vehicles, writes David Kirsch. [4] A trade organization,  the Electrical Vehicle Association of America, was not formed until 1910 and its promotional campaign was  “poorly focused, ” Kirsch says. [5] Its marketing was split between promoting cars for the elite and promoting  commercial trucks.  There was no entrepreneur like Elon Musk, and the industry was facing the Elon Musk of the day,  Henry Ford.

So, in conclusion,  while the technology was a problem, it might have been overcome. Other factors may have been more important. These include: culture (the “woman’s car” problem), producer complacency, vigorous competition from gas-powered cars, and the desire for powerful cars for touring.

Notes

[1] Rudi Volti, “Why Internal Combustion?” Invention and Technology 6, no. 2 (Fall 1990), https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/why-internal-combustion-1.

[2] “Automobiles of 1904,” brochure reprinted from Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, January, 1904 (Maynard, MA: Chandler Press, 1987).

[3] Volti, https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/why-internal-combustion-1.

[4] David Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2000).

[5] Kirsch, 101.

Baker Electric advertisement courtesy of Don O’Brien on Creative Commons.