Before the horseless carriage matured into the modern automobile, electric cars competed successfully against gasoline (internal combustion) and steam (external combustion) cars, because electric cars were quick and easy to start.
Further, their chief weakness, short range, wasn’t such a weakness in a world without long paved routes to travel.
The introduction of the electric starter gave gasoline engines the same ease of use as electric cars, and Ford’s assembly line brought the price of gasoline cars way, way down. By the time electric cars developed a 100-mile range, they were on the way out.
Now, after a century of technological development in batteries and electric motors, electric cars still have the same 100-mile range:
The Fritchle Electric had lead-acid batteries, like all its contemporaries, with an energy density between 20 and 40 Wh/kg (early 1900 batteries had energy densities of only 10 to 15 Wh/kg). The Nissan and the Mitsubishi have a more powerful lithium-ion battery with an energy density of around 140 Wh/kg.
The Nissan’s battery can thus store 3.5 to 7 times more energy for a given weight than an average early electric from about 1910. This could have resulted in a vehicle with a 3.5 to 7 times better range (350 to 700 miles or 560 to 1,130 km), but this is not the case. The technological improvements could also have been translated into a 3.5 to 7 times lighter (and smaller) battery, and consequently a lighter and more fuel efficient vehicle, but this is not the case either.
The battery of the Nissan Leaf is only 1.6 times lighter than the battery of the Fritchle: 220 kg (480 pounds) versus 360 kg (800 pounds). The Nissan vehicle (including the battery) weighs more than the Fritchle: 1,271 kg (2,800 pounds) versus 950 kg (2,100 pounds).
The most obvious difference between the specifications of the old and new cars is the power of their motors. The 1908 car had a 10 HP motor, the 2010 car has a 110 HP motor. In other words, the Nissan Leaf has the motor output of 11 electric Fritchles. The smaller and lighter Mitsubishi i-MiEV (1,080 kg or 2,400 pounds) has the motor power of 6.5 electric Fritchles.
The maximum speed of the Fritchle was 40 km/h (25 mph), the Nissan does 140 km/h (87 mph) and the i-MiEV is not far behind (130 km/h or 81 mph). Acceleration data cannot be compared, but there is no doubt that the 2010 cars will accelerate many times faster (and can climb hills much more easily) than their early 1900 cousins. Today, fast acceleration times are one of the selling points of EV’s.
[...]
While the battery of the Nissan is lighter than the battery of the Fritchle, the Nissan vehicle including the battery is 321 kg (706 pounds) heavier. Without the battery, the Nissan weighs almost twice as much as the Fritchle: 1,051 kg (2,310 pounds) versus 590 kg (1,300 pounds).So while batteries became more than 3 times lighter in 100 years time, the weight of the vehicle itself (without battery) doubled. The extra weight of the Nissan already nullifies a significant portion of the progress: a 35 percent higher mass can lead to a 28 percent reduction in range.
The second factor is directly related to the massive increase in horse power. Electric motors are (generally) most efficient around 75 percent of their rated load. Their efficiency drops dramatically below 25 percent. The Fritchle was most efficient at a speed of around 20 mph. The much more powerful motor of the Nissan Leaf, however, is most efficient at a speed of around 105 km/h, far above the average speed in the tests. Today’s EV’s consume less energy at low speeds than at high speeds because of other factors, but compared to early electrics with their much less powerful motor they are probably less efficient at speeds of around 20 mph.
(Hat tip to Dave Milovich, who cited a reprint at the Oil Drum.)
On this front, those with the disposition and competence to read through author’s agenda, the book Internal Combustion is an excellent piece of research. It covers history, personalities, business, politics, culture, and a bit of tech — deeply researched and referenced.
WSJ article today pointed out that it is a big deal in most jurisdictions for homeowners to get approval to install 220v charging systems in their homes, which seems pretty important for anyone acquiring a pure electric. Nissan is trying to address with local jurisdictions.
Thanks for the heads-up, David. (The article — Charge Up and Go? First Ask City Hall — is premium content, by the way.)
I assume you’re talking about Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives by Edwin Black, who previously wrote IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation. They both sound like fascinating books — with, as you note, a clear author’s agenda.