Why Electric Cars Failed 100 Years Ago

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Күн бұрын

Robert and Jack spend the day with a staggeringly clean example of one of the very earliest electric cars: A 1901 Waverly Model 22. Built at a time when EVs outnumbered ICE cars, it is an incredible insight into the genesis of the electric car - but what happened? Why didn't EVs catch on the first time around? Bobby and Jack go for a (very slow) drive to try to find out.
Special thanks to EVA England for providing this incredible car. Get 20% off your first year of membership using the code: FULLYCHARGED20
EVA England: www.evaengland.org.uk
00:00 Intro
1:15 Meet the Waverly Model 22
4:10 Exterior walkaround
7:31 How does it work?
9:38 Battery swapping before it was cool
11:35 A (very slow) drive
13:22 Close call...
14:11 What happened to early EVs?
16:53 Lessons learned?
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#Waverly #1901 #electriccar #steamcar #cleanenergy #battery #electricvehicles #ev

Пікірлер: 2 500

@JackScarlett1 8 ай бұрын

So... shall we do a steam car next? 😅

@templeofleila 8 ай бұрын

yes

@t1n4444 8 ай бұрын

No. Straight to a couple of years in the future. Hydrogen fuel cells.

@DavidKnowles0 8 ай бұрын

It never going to happen. A film about the hydrogen revolution that never happened might be interesting in 5 years time.

@t1n4444 8 ай бұрын

@@DavidKnowles0 Keep dreaming. We'll be seeing BMW's appraisal of their hydrogen fuel cell cars' world tour long before that.

@sIightIybored 8 ай бұрын

External combustion is an excellent addition to any project.

@bugsygoo 8 ай бұрын

An electric car held the world speed record of 105kmh in 1899. It's on display in the car museum in Mulhouse.

@rendezone 8 ай бұрын

🤯

@alexc7857 8 ай бұрын

Down hill or on a flat

@hitreset0291 8 ай бұрын

@@alexc7857 under water 🤪

@SniperSnake50BMG 8 ай бұрын

Wasn't that the car Nicola Tesla made? But Nicola's did 150kph...

@joeabad5908 8 ай бұрын

@@alexc7857Those who thinks electric cars are slow have not driven one..

@lesliefranklin1870 8 ай бұрын

Note that horses normally walk up to 30 miles in a day. So, a car that would drive 60 miles on a charge would have been great.

@no1DdC 8 ай бұрын

For long distance journeys, people would switch horses.

@oatlegOnYt 8 ай бұрын

@@no1DdCThat is more or less like change the vehicle or swap the battery. In a "what-if" scenario where Earth was lacking fossil fuels, we would use electric vehicles directly. They were far superior that the animals. Well... A world without coal would have needed more innovation on metallurgy to allow the industrial revolution happening using just renewable energy.

@ryanthompson3737 8 ай бұрын

@@oatlegOnYtI mean, steam cars are and were a viable solution back then.. it definitely wasn't a technological limitation, but a battle of political and monetary influence.

@petefluffy7420 8 ай бұрын

@@no1DdCthat would have left many lonely horses hanging around.

@incognitotorpedo42 8 ай бұрын

It's nicer than a horse, but that wasn't the competition. The competition was ICE. The problem was that lead acid batteries just weren't energy dense enough to compete.

@mattnordsell9760 8 ай бұрын

My great grandma died back in 1995, right before turning 102 years old. She was around from the beginning of the automobile. My dad told me a story about when he picked her up one time in his new pickup truck and he was telling her about all the features it had and she said how they were happy when they were able to have a windshield in front of them. That was back in 1980 that that happened.

@loreicmaster 7 ай бұрын

How many Tesla's will still be running in a 100 years after theyre produced......now that funny. 0000000000000000000

@gsp49 7 ай бұрын

There are many cars like this in the Tallahassee Auto Museum.

@The_Normal_Comment 7 ай бұрын

The intro is Doug obviously

@WolfHeathen 7 ай бұрын

@@loreicmaster That depends on if they still make cars I would assume.

@utha2665 7 ай бұрын

@@loreicmaster Probably just as many Waverley Model 22's. Not that many, but I guarantee there will be a few, not that I'll ever be able to prove it 😂😂

@andreass.3444 8 ай бұрын

Little known abroad, in Switzerland also existed an electric car manufacturer in those early days. The 'A. Tribelhorn & Cie, Fabrik elektrischer Fahrzeuge' (factory for electric cars) existed from 1906 - 1922. Tribelhorn delivered a wide range of electric vehicles, such as doctor cars, hotel buses, transporters and trucks in different sizes. Tribelhorn also set up the probably worlds first network of public charging stations at that time. Eventually he got an order for a large number of 3-wheeled electric delivery vehicles for the Swiss post, so in 1918 Tribelhorn opened a new larger factory in Zurich-Altstetten. But after manufacturing of these vehicles, the number of orders fell and with the upcoming depression of the 1920s and the competing ICE cars, he was unable to cope financially with the oversized factory.

@KingfishStevens-di9ji 4 ай бұрын

Exactly, self propelled purpose built for transporting people vehicles were built by many different inventors as early as 1801. Mercedes Benz has done a great job perpetuating the myth that Karl Benz was first. He wasn't.

@yossiallen3316 3 ай бұрын

Wow that's interesting. 😊

@mrdanforth3744 8 ай бұрын

An often overlooked point is that electricity was only available in towns and cities in 1901 and not all towns at that. Some rural areas did not get electrified until the fifties and sixties. So the electric was confined to urban use, which is where it shone. It was gas cars that put the country on wheels.

@TheHenirik 8 ай бұрын

And before petrol became widespread steam would be what you want If you wanted to be sure about being able to refuel.

@76horsepower 8 ай бұрын

@@TheHenirikYep. There’s a reason that all the early tractors were steam-driven.

@alanmay7929 8 ай бұрын

@@TheHenirik steam was mostly for much heavier/heavy duty applications like trains, agricultural machines, mining and even industrial needs.

@TEverettReynolds 8 ай бұрын

@@76horsepower > There’s a reason that all the early tractors were steam-driven Henry Ford mandated that the Model T be able to run on Ethanol because the farmers could make it themselves if needed. He sold a car for the common man and the average farmer.

@bobbrinkerhoff3592 8 ай бұрын

@@alanmay7929 then how do you explain the several steam powered cars belonging to Jay Leno ?

@matthewfensterwald1853 8 ай бұрын

The B footage of you guys driving is just gold.

@Eduardo_Espinoza 8 ай бұрын

Golden age moment.

@billdale1 8 ай бұрын

Correction: you stated 9:40, that obviously the original batteries would not last 120 years. That's a reasonable assumption. But Jay Leno's 1909 Baker Electric is still running on its original nickel iron battery, and apparently still has a range of something like 100 miles. Genuinely amazing. But it was obscenely expensive, and had a top speed of 15 MPH.

@retrobilly1986 5 ай бұрын

Obscenely expensive, so the electric cars today aren’t

@jrherita 4 ай бұрын

Was wondering if someone had a still running Nickel Iron battery - amazing!

@17kcotsdoow86 4 ай бұрын

I went to an electric vehicle show in Vancouver BC back around 2007, and there was a Baker electric there. The owners had just recently changed the original nickel iron batteries due to tiny pin holes starting to develop.

@fixman88 4 ай бұрын

His was the one owned by Henry Ford's wife. Nickel-Iron batteries are also known as Edison Batteries.

@THESLlCK 4 ай бұрын

@@retrobilly1986 they average over 35 grand.

@janetcarbone4213 5 ай бұрын

❤ the Brit sense of humor. Great mix of information, history, and fun!😊

@deanchur 8 ай бұрын

Depending on how you define a vehicle, it might be worth looking into the first hydrogen vehicle as well, which pre-dates the Waverly by 94 years (yes, 1807).

@ultort 8 ай бұрын

Note that today's hydrogen cars use a fuel cell that converts the hydrogen to electricity to turn an electric motor, they do not directly use the hydrogen for combustion, so they are electric cars with an hydrogen battery.

@TB-up4xi 8 ай бұрын

Well......sort of .....Isaac De Rivaz built a fully manual engine powered by hydrogen / oxygen. It was essentially 1 very heavy piston that did work under gravity, i.e. the weight of the falling piston could drive a gear that could say move a wheel or drive a pulley etc. The hydrogen was stored in a balloon, when the piston was in the low position air and hydrogen would be introduced to the combustion chamber by manually controlling valves, the operator than pressed a button to generate a spark - the resulting explosion drove the heavy piston the top of the cylinder, it returned under it's own weight. In 1807 De Rivaz fitted one of his hydrogen engines to a modified horse drawn cart, and through a series of gears managed to propel the cart forward about 6 feet each time the piston fell. You can imagine the practicality of having to manually operate valves and press an ignition source every 6 feet of driving - it did not catch on.

@williamallen7836 7 ай бұрын

@@TB-up4xi It did serve as a proof of concept. Which many of the different engine / vehicles at the time were. Not necessarily meant as a production & commercially viable product. There were a lot stepping stones that were literally the shoulder's of giants much of our modern vehicle tech stands upon. It is interesting to see that many of the stumbling blocks of electric cars are still the same problems that will eventually see electric vehicles fail again, or at least be relegated to one option only viable for certain types of customers. There's a reason the UK's ban on gas & diesel powered vehicles has been recently pushed back to 2035, and closer to 2035 it's pretty much a given that it will be pushed back even further. Progressives haven't learned from past mistakes of believing that if they merely pass a law(s) physics & technology will suddenly comply with the law. Lol

@matthewjbauer1990 7 ай бұрын

Richard Trevithick built the 1st steam powered horseless carriage in 1803. The Waverley was built in 1904.

@jamesgibson5876 6 ай бұрын

@@TB-up4xiso it was a stored energy ..gravity .. motor ?

@carlosorff 8 ай бұрын

What has always fascinated me is that they were there 100 years ago: electric cars, electric motors, charging, battery swapping, regen braking, 60 miles range almost 100km. However you look at it, this is amazing. I have known about this for ages, but I have never seen one in such detail as this one. Even the name "RW Recreational Vehicle" or something like that. NEO got the idea for battery swapping from this guys.

@karlpartridge9546 3 ай бұрын

but they got wise and realised petrol kicks butt in every respect

@foe11191969 7 ай бұрын

Well done, Robert & Jack. It's great to see another ancient electric car in use. I've always enjoyed Jay Leno's 1906 Baker video. Back at the turn of that century, about a third of the cars were either electric, steam or gasoline powered...and they all seemed to have their unique pros and cons if you will. You're correct in most facets of this episode - it was the electric starter on ICE cars that set them apart. Combine that with the old lead-acid batteries for electrics (i.e. low power density), the difficulty of charging them back then - few homes had electric outlets yet. The first fill-up gas stations started to appear around 1906...depending upon what state you lived in. I was just shocked that this electric car that you showcased had regenerative braking...back in 1901. Wow!

@KevinT3141 8 ай бұрын

Brilliant video gents, and brilliant production from the whole team as well. Bleeping the guys with Fully Charged Europe ads was an inspired touch. Lastly, thank you so much Mike for making it possible!

@CraigRayner59 8 ай бұрын

Loved the change switching from series to mixed to parallel for the motor. DC technology at its finest. Same as used in electric trams and trains of the period. Brilliant.

@hagerty1952 8 ай бұрын

4:30 The "shock absorbers" are actually the friction between the leaves of the leaf springs. That's why they were used on wagons.

@TheInsultInvestor 6 ай бұрын

no.

@rolhen8221 5 ай бұрын

leaf springs have nothing to do with friction but with elastic deformation of the metal. they are literally just springs, like the name sugggest. a lot of trailers or trucks still use them nowadays, farm equipment, too.

@ethanlamoureux5306 5 ай бұрын

@@rolhen8221 Actually, leaf springs do have friction between the leaves. Each leaf is a separate spring, and when assembled, they push against each other. When they flex, they slide against each other. The more they deflect, the harder they press together and the more friction is produced. This friction will tend to keep them from bouncing too much. Coil springs are much bouncier since there’s only one spring and little friction, so shock dampening is much more important with coil springs.

@KingfishStevens-di9ji 4 ай бұрын

@@rolhen8221 nope the OP Is right

@WeeShoeyDugless 4 ай бұрын

That, in theory, might in some eyes be true but in reality the 'friction' between the leafs offered little or no shock absorbing effect. All vehicles with leaf springs were subsequently fitted with (1stly) friction shocks and later hydraulic/gas items.

@Gwydion67 7 ай бұрын

What a mind-blowing in- and outro! 🤩 Not to talk about all of the facts. Simply great. 😃👍 Thank you, Bobby and Jack!! 🙏

@dorianleakey 8 ай бұрын

The reason we have better batteries was there was a demand for better batteries for mobile phones, if there was a demand for better battery technology they would have been developed sooner.

@chrisspain 8 ай бұрын

Battery life on my phone still sucks.

@dorianleakey 8 ай бұрын

@@chrisspain Because now it does more than a gaming PC could do 20yrs ago. I think there should be a market for a nokia 3310 with a modern battery and charging port. It would probably last a month on one charge. EDIT I may be overstating this with the stuff about gaming PCs a bit, but they keep bloating our phones to run bigger and bigger programmes, which we are supposed to call apps now.

@MajimaEnterprises 8 ай бұрын

@@chrisspain Only a problem with smartphones. I had a Nokia 5310 (2020) and the battery would last a month before needing to be recharged. Admittedly, it spent most of its life on standby, but still, a smartphone's battery doesn't last that long even on standby. I have a Sony Xperia X Compact now, barely use it, have it stamina mode all the time and the battery still needs to be recharged after 3-4 days.

@vylbird8014 4 ай бұрын

Also the manufacture of li-ion cells required advances in materials engineering. Just try manufacturing thin films of lithium cobalt oxide and and ultra-thin polymer separator, with an electrolyte of lithium hexafluorophosphate. Or even just forming graphite into thin sheets. In the lead-acid battery this car uses, in contrast, the electrodes are just lumps of lead. You pour lead into a mould, and out pops half a battery. Box two of them up in a wooden box lined with acid-proof pitch, add acid, put the lid on, you have a battery cell.

@legofan431 8 ай бұрын

This was an amazing look back in time, thank you for the incredible presentation! I also really loved the bit at the beginning, adding to the feeling of looking back.

@TERRYMCCLUSKEY 5 ай бұрын

Good stuff. This is where it all began! Thanks for your production guys!

@microhaxo 7 ай бұрын

Great video. Enjoyed the candid moments when trying to get a feel for the brakes.

@donaldlush2822 8 ай бұрын

I must say I do like an electric car without a massive iPad on the dashboard

@wilkoone9155 8 ай бұрын

I'm on my 5th BEV & I detest infotainment screens running third party apps. Keep electric cars simple and cheap I say.

@Moses_VII 8 ай бұрын

I think there is a Chinese car with a smaller infotainment screen. It is a cheap one. May have been a BYD Seagull or a newer model of Wuling.

@deany1980 8 ай бұрын

Lol, just get a 2012 Mitsubishi i-miev with a battery upgrade

@kirksway1 8 ай бұрын

I believe the Wuling has a port to plug your phone into and use as the screen. @@Moses_VII

@tubularG 8 ай бұрын

Or a Seat Mii electric with its "just add phone" solution

@showme360 8 ай бұрын

The look on your faces when you two got too close to the camera car, and then quickly followed by the laughter of relief from all as disaster was averted, had me laughing my head off. What a great episode this was and love the car review and the terminology of today on a car made over 100 years ago! Sharing like crazy!!

@patrickwines9551 4 ай бұрын

The old munitions factory in Idaho falls had electric trucks for in the plant, bought em in 1902ish and finally retired in the 70s. Still had one in the park on display.

@unclemarksdiyauto 7 ай бұрын

Very interesting video. I didn't realize they could re-GEN back then! And we think that electric cars are all something new.

@danielzhang1916 6 ай бұрын

the concept was already there, we just didn't have the technology to actually do it back then, that was the problem

@winfriedtheis5767 8 ай бұрын

Love this episode! So lovely to know that modern BEVs have not spoiled the advantages of the first EVs: ease of use, lack of noise, and regen breaking!

@ramblerandy2397 8 ай бұрын

I also especially loved the analogue Volts/Amps gauges, with the Amps showing negative consumption for regenerative braking.

@scootergrant8683 8 ай бұрын

Well, I would like to see how much one could gain from regenerative breaking with the batteries of the time.

@andrewdawson5281 8 ай бұрын

BEV charging and range anxiety are not synonymous with "...ease of use,..."

@TheHenirik 8 ай бұрын

@@andrewdawson5281no, especially when most houses and many whole cities didn't have electricity. With a steam-car you could always find somewhere to refuel. And not all of the steam-cars were time consuming or complicated to start and use, but electrics were and still generally is the easiest to start and drive.

@winfriedtheis5767 8 ай бұрын

@@andrewdawson5281 I doubt, people had range anxiety back then. Compared to the typical distance the range was probably okay. And charging was possible at the usual destination, and someone else was doing it anyways… Oh, and you had to go to an apothecary to get petrol back then too… So the drawbacks of ICE cars begin last century were similar to the beginning of BEVs. Today range anxiety is not a thing anymore, and charging network is becoming increasingly better and more reliable. And “ease of use” refers to “step in and switch on, go!” Plus there is just one type of electrcity, and I don’t need to check lubricant, cool fluids, AdBlue…

@user-rc7dg3np9c 8 ай бұрын

Just think of battery advances if Mr Ford went battery all those years ago ?

@computerjantje 8 ай бұрын

Absolutely fantastic. Amazing that a fully function electric car was invented so long ago and even more amazing it lasts already for over 120 years. Thank you for this great video.

@williamrosenow6176 4 ай бұрын

This car will maybe never fail because it was built to be better than a horse. No stress on parts or a need for speed. The guy that made it probably thought it would last 100 years. They took pride in what they built and thought of things like this as a legacy.

@HorizonimagingCoUkPhotography 7 ай бұрын

What a fun and fascinating episode! 🤩 Thank you FCS (and Mike for lending the car to them! Where did you find this car Mike?!) for bringing this to our screens!

@tanja2651 8 ай бұрын

That was absolutely lovely ! Thank you so much for this episode

@kirkwagner461 8 ай бұрын

I'd love to see a show like this, with an example of a vehicle from the same era powered by gasoline and another powered by steam. All 3 together to see how they compared in the day.

@TheHenirik 8 ай бұрын

And either low end of high end versions for all, there were quite a bit of difference in functionality, even in the same price ranges

@acronus 8 ай бұрын

If you ask Jay Leno really nicely......

@seumasmackinlay 7 ай бұрын

Yes, and drag race them like it’s an episode of TFLEV… 😉

@MAGnetICus_Attractus 6 ай бұрын

Don't forget prohibition era Ethanol and Methanol fuel.

@ulazygit 4 ай бұрын

Victorian Top Gear …

@jacobvidjeskog 7 ай бұрын

Such a joy to watch! Thank you for the history and knowledge

@bluepawn 6 ай бұрын

What a wonderful video !!! I really enjoyed. thanks so much lots of things that I didn't know in this car...

@johnm2879 8 ай бұрын

According to the book "The Renewable Energy Transition, Realities for Canada and the World", Ferdinand Porche's first car design was an electric.

@sergentcolon1 8 ай бұрын

His version of the Tiger tank was electric drive, but he couldn’t make it reliable, problems with the motors and generators overheating and catching fire.

@toyotaprius79 8 ай бұрын

series plug in hybrid

@toyotaprius79 8 ай бұрын

@@sergentcolon1 Voltage too low for the amps needed. Same lesson learned with the 1997 Prius

@LiquidPinky 8 ай бұрын

Its hub motor drive system design was also used for the moon buggy many decades later. ;)

@paulmichaelfreedman8334 8 ай бұрын

@@toyotaprius79 Higher voltage brings its own perils and challenges.

@EugeneLambert 8 ай бұрын

A-mazing! Could well be my favourite episode ever. Thanks to the owner for letting you guys play with this wonderful and historic machine.

@bellofbelmont 7 ай бұрын

Great fun. Thanks. Jim Bell (Australia)

@MCP647 5 ай бұрын

I'm genuinely unsure if telling Jack to step off for the outro was a gag or not, but hilarious either way. Really great episode! I find turn of the 20th century stuff to be really interesting, especially relating to mobility.

@NeilBlanchard 8 ай бұрын

Here's the thing - it took an *electric motor* to "save" internal combustion engine cars. I.E. the starter motor.

@paulwilliams5013 8 ай бұрын

..Well the electric motor was invented 42 ish years before the modern ice

@drunkenhobo8020 8 ай бұрын

It's like that Ancient Greek fable, where the eagle is slain by an arrow feathered with one of its own plumes.

@Moses_VII 8 ай бұрын

Yes, but that doesn't mean much, since the use of an electric motor in an ICE vehicle isn't cheating according to any rules.

@alanmay7929 8 ай бұрын

@@Moses_VIIexactly! And it's with the starter that ICE really took of and built this world in which were living now! Roads, bridges, agriculture, mining.,..

@NeilBlanchard 8 ай бұрын

@@Moses_VII ICE engines are totally dependent on electric motors to even function - but EVs don't need fossil fuels. That's the most important "rule" - burning fossil fuel is wrong, and is killing life as we know it.

@zoeward4555 8 ай бұрын

That was ace, thanks for that!

@MeaningFromData 8 ай бұрын

Very interesting. Loved the ragtime music in the intro!

@brainworksknowhow3339 4 ай бұрын

The camera expertise is amazing! Loved the sarcasm throughout out the episode. Great video!

@richard63 8 ай бұрын

Apart from rainy days, I would love one of these. Really liking the 30 inch tyres, too. They handle potholes more comfortably.

@KingfishStevens-di9ji 4 ай бұрын

Those tires are $1000 each to replace.

@richard63 4 ай бұрын

Challenge accepted !😆@@KingfishStevens-di9ji

@tonylittle3508 4 ай бұрын

No worse than a horse I guess, on a rainy day.

@philiptaylor7902 8 ай бұрын

That is the best episode for a long time. More Jack & Robert please!

@rinnin 8 ай бұрын

So true. Loved it. ☺️

@patrickchubey3127 6 ай бұрын

I remember seeing my Dad start his vintage 1917 chevy. It wasn't that hard, he'd just set the throttle and spark, give the motor one fast flip and baboom, there you go, it ran. That car actually had a floor mounted starter but Dad cranked it by hand to save wear and tear on the starter, presumably because you can't buy parts for those old cars anymore.

@Electriceye1984bySam 6 ай бұрын

Excellent vid !…thanks to the owner for sharing !!!❤❤❤

@sambo7734 8 ай бұрын

That was wonderful :) I would love to see an episode about electric milk floats - they were very common in my childhood, and I'm pretty sure they were lead acid batteries too...

@robt2151 8 ай бұрын

Agreed, having driven one very briefly. They had the ability to move several tonnes of milk and glass bottles around at a speed very similar to that achieved by many city motorists today.

@ryszardlorenc7047 8 ай бұрын

@@robt2151 I drove milk floats for several years(MANY years ago !) The range was far from impressive but they were powerful. If power was'nt released quickly enough they would perform wheel spins when they were backed up to the loading dock.

@jozefbubez6116 8 ай бұрын

Not absolutely sure but the batteries may have been nickel-iron; so-called NIFE the electrolyte being a solution of potassium hydroxide.

@shaunw9270 8 ай бұрын

Listen to a Tesla reversing.. that nostalgic milk float noise .

@keithterry2169 8 ай бұрын

I would guess that the range of those old milk floats must have been up to 15 miles, going by the distance that our milkman had to travel from depot and back. That was a journey with negligible gradients though. Dairies kept a few ICE vans to cover the rural runs.@@ryszardlorenc7047

@nathanbrumbaugh8545 8 ай бұрын

I grew up, driving horse and buggy. I now drive Chevy bolt, you really made my day! Love your show.

@erebostd 8 ай бұрын

How old are you? 😳😁

@drunkenhobo8020 8 ай бұрын

@@erebostd He's 19 but grew up Amish.

@chrisspain 8 ай бұрын

@@erebostd In rural mid West you got horse and buggy today? Nothing better came along yet to go to town. Truly autonomous, the Horse will bring you back home. And it is the ultimate chick magnet. Always.

@nathanbrumbaugh8545 8 ай бұрын

59 I grew up in a group similar to Amish, although different.

@erebostd 8 ай бұрын

@@nathanbrumbaugh8545 wow. Quite a different lifestyle to me here in Germany, i guess! Thanks for sharing 😄👍

@thomasschwarting5108 7 ай бұрын

Watching you drive this is SO COOL!!

@KrisTheSpecialist 8 ай бұрын

Nice job, thanks for the video!

@oenkepoenke 8 ай бұрын

9:21 not entirely true. Your friends at Transport Evolved had a video at 26th september 2023 on a 1912 Detroit Electric with nickel-iron (aka "Edison") batteries, which were replaced in 1993(!) - not because they had degraded, but because the cases had rusted through. So, it's all about the battery tech used. They can last hugely longer than the car itself, not only 1.5..3 times longer than today's batteries, when treated okay, can outlive an averagely used current EV 🙂

@TomoBunyip 8 ай бұрын

I can't believe how much trust the owner placed in the full charged team. I gather they sedated him before they started to shoot.

@cactusjackNV 4 ай бұрын

IMO if you aren't chill enough to share a relic like that, you shouldn't own a piece of history in the first place.

@edwardhughes8242 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for your presentation

@HendrikDelagrange 7 ай бұрын

I have the impression that the albeit well-intended joking about its shortcomings (no windshield, no steering wheel, "slow", ...) do not justice to the absolute marvel of engineering this car is. Instead, we should be humbled by it. The straightforward efficient design, the aesthetics, the smart solutions, the ergonomics, all that craftsmanship in 1902. I don't think we did a much better job at innovating in the 122 years since than they did at their time.

@RaXXha 8 ай бұрын

That offroad overtake was savage! 😂

@legostud 8 ай бұрын

There were old batteries at that time that are still around and working. The Edison battery had a very long lifespan and I heard of another one recently that you could replace the electrolytes each year.

@EnhancedNightmare 8 ай бұрын

Batteries can have amazing life spans if you use them within specified conditions and limits. I have some 20 year old nickel batteries which loet most of their power but still can power clocks and remotes.

@Gottenhimfella 8 ай бұрын

Indeed, and I would not be surprised to find that the bulbs in the headlights were the original ex factory items. Prior to about 1920, incandescent bulbs were built to last forever.

@EnhancedNightmare 8 ай бұрын

@@Gottenhimfella nah mate they were just under volted because of low quality control. If you run incandescent from today at 25% power with steady electricity and with fewer power cycles they can last ages.

@EnhancedNightmare 8 ай бұрын

@@Gottenhimfella ok some of them rust and the old ones had full ceramic socked screw (no idea how it is in English but you get what I mean)

@CrookedSkew 4 ай бұрын

Amazing history and educational and entertaining video, thanks.

@theodorehaskins3756 3 күн бұрын

Wow! Talk about stepping back into time! I am really surprised that it actually works, and that they let you drive it, and so to see you drive it, is quite amazing. Cheers 🥂

@InvisibleCitizen 8 ай бұрын

I went to the Edison - Ford House Museum in Ford Myers and saw the Edison EV and Edison batteries. There are many people in Australia that use Edison Batteries with their Home Solar Systems.

@stephenbamforth1514 8 ай бұрын

Me too 🙂

@peterduxbury927 8 ай бұрын

Electric Milk Floats were the Workhorses in the 60s. The only noise was that the Milk Bottles rattled in their zinc steel crates - as it went along the cobbled streets at 0530 hrs.

@dandahermitseals5582 5 ай бұрын

So Kool. Phyllis Diller rode around with her dad in her childhood in a modle T looking e car.

@andrewfrodo2086 8 ай бұрын

So where can I purchase the parts to make this as a kit card. This was splendid.....All the acting had me on floor laughing!

@twogsds 8 ай бұрын

Thank you Robert and Jack for such an amusing programme, wonderfully mood lifting after all the stuff going on about the future of electric cars.

@NoName-ik2du 8 ай бұрын

I'm disappointed there was no explanation of what the little gear mechanism on the left-front wheel was.

@ZesPak 8 ай бұрын

I was wondering as well. From the looks of it... could be some sort of odometer?

@NoName-ik2du 8 ай бұрын

@@ZesPak Hmm, could be? In the close-up of it at 4:15, it doesn't even look like it's connected to anything. But given the vehicle's age, it's possible parts of it are missing at this point. Maybe the top bit that's sticking out spins and you could order an optional speedometer/odometer that would connect to it?

@jericoba 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video. It's a pleasure to watch that old electric vehicle. As it is - it was a good idea with EVs and now we are really taking off, a second time around!

@waynewilliamson4212 8 ай бұрын

very much enjoyed...thanks!

@acefoxuk 8 ай бұрын

Absolutely incredible! Amazing bit of tech, loved the video, so well executed, love the vintage opening and ending, Robert & Jack are always a pleasure to watch together.

@newnewmee44 8 ай бұрын

19:47 on some electric forklifts you can swap the battery. We used to do that at my old working place. It would take us like 5 minute to swap the discharged battery from the forklift with a new one. And we used to play and mess around during those 5 min, we could have probably don it in less than a minute, since we just had to slide the discharged battery out on rollers and slide in the new battery and then connect the large connector on the battery and that was all.

@MikheilGhvinianidze 7 ай бұрын

During the Spring and Autumn times I would enjoy driving updated version of that.

@fernandoi3389 5 ай бұрын

You are forgetting that you are not driving on a road of 100 years ago....

@rklauco 8 ай бұрын

Beautiful machine! Thanks for the video.

@hueywallop2461 8 ай бұрын

Lots of fun, but I would have liked to hear more technical info. A solid rear axle, or limited slip? DC motor w/ permanent magnets? How did the speed control work? by varying voltage? Was there a speed governor on the motor? How was the motor cooled and lubricated? Thanks.

@cvcoco 6 ай бұрын

From USA Im delighted by this and wish I had one. Assuming its not coming back, we should press hard for laws to allow golf carts (or any homemade device) for city use, no license or registration required. Why cant we?

@billwilson-es5yn 3 ай бұрын

Those are available since it's allowed.

@cvcoco 3 ай бұрын

@@billwilson-es5yn Where?

@billwilson-es5yn 3 ай бұрын

@@cvcoco in Texas and other states. Their DMV websites will say if those need to be tagged like cars.

@mongo64071 5 ай бұрын

The doble steam car was awesome. Very under appreciated.

@777Outrigger 8 ай бұрын

I remember my dad saying that men would sometimes break their arms trying to crank a gasoline engine if they weren't careful.

@chrisspain 8 ай бұрын

Even today you are not a Harley driver if you did not at least once broke your ankle.

@ghost307 8 ай бұрын

Anything can hurt you if you do it wrong.

@777Outrigger 8 ай бұрын

@@ghost307 Well evidently it was easy to do it wrong. But I wouldn't know the details.

@ghost307 8 ай бұрын

@@777Outrigger The trick is to use the palm of your hand to push against the crank. Too many people wrapped their hand around the handle (like grabbing a broomstick) when turning the crank. If you do it right any kickback would push your hand away from the crank. If you do it wrong you will have a firm grip on the crank when it kicked back and you'd likely end up with a busted thumb or a broken arm.

@777Outrigger 8 ай бұрын

@@ghost307 Interesting. Sounds like you have experience in cranking 1920s cars. Not a skill I need though, especially since I drive a Model Y.

@mickhursey4802 8 ай бұрын

I love that Robert has dressed in a suit and tie, whereas Jack has his grandads cardigan an trainers🤣

@davwht9 8 ай бұрын

Love to see the inside of the motor, brushes and windings .

@davidjarrell1964 7 ай бұрын

At the end, he said, "only now, are we able to do it properly " That's not quite true. We are still dealing with tons of batteries that takes an enormous amount of energy to maintain.

@ralpharmsby8040 9 күн бұрын

Did you know that it takes around 4kWh of electricity to refine one gallon of petrol or 140 kWh per barrel. Just think how much that is for the 27 million barrels produced worldwide every day.

@snowstrobe 8 ай бұрын

I saw this at the FC Show, and so wanted to look inside it. That is all the speed we need. I actually wish they made cars as simple as this still.

@matthewgodwin3050 8 ай бұрын

Yes, absolutely. If the electric vehicle was as light and as simple as it could be, and all the modern day fripperies were stripped away, real world range would be much improved and smaller battery packs could be employed, having a lower impact on the environment. Having 3 tonne plus SUV gin palace EVs is nonsensical. If electric is to be the primary method of propulsion, then light and simple is the way to do it. So far, only Citroen have got that memo.

@98Zai 8 ай бұрын

Yes! It would be completely user serviceable and I'm sure it would last forever, with interchangeable "faceplates" like ye olde mobile phones :D But, it wouldn't be lucrative enough for production in this society. I hope I'm wrong though!

@Gottenhimfella 8 ай бұрын

Indeed. Also road deaths (including pedestrians) would be massively reduced. At present urban survival depends on your disposable income: in all but name, an arms race. When both vehicles in an urban smash weigh next to nothing, everyone walks away.

@TherconJair 8 ай бұрын

There is the Citroën Ami.

@98Zai 8 ай бұрын

@@Gottenhimfella I've been thinking about that. Whenever those big SUV's that infiltrated from the US cross my path, I just see them as weapons made to kill. They never go off road in those expensive show pieces, I've never even seen them on a gravel road. The development of society is disappointing.

@sktaylor99 8 ай бұрын

What a great episode chaps. Someone has really looked after that car for it to still be drivable.

@RantDuJour 8 ай бұрын

Aka lots of money to afford not having to use it and not needing the money.

@movingloz 7 ай бұрын

Wow. Just wow. Omg. Thanks so very much for the vid.

@RichieReportsUK 8 ай бұрын

18mph maximum speed, quite respectable really, for the time & ideal for the roads of Wales today!! 60 mile range & regenerative brakes was quite advanced for its time, too! Manufacturers should think about making a very basic electric car today, one without all the whistles & bells, at an affordable price.

@stianthomassen6693 8 ай бұрын

I have a book with news articles from 1896(edit: written by a Wm. Baxter) where the author talks about his meeting with the electric car. He is impressed, especially since it can go anywhere, even on bumpy roads which the petroleum counterparts could not at the time. Range was counted in hours it could drive, can’t remember the number but it was hours. So he just waited for battery swap stations turning up everywhere and this would be the future.

@user-jh6vt8vx4v 8 ай бұрын

😂It seems we going in a full cycle in a century

@captiannemo1587 8 ай бұрын

Which book?

@Moses_VII 8 ай бұрын

Back then, people were betting on Nio rather than Tesla. 😅

@alanmay7929 8 ай бұрын

Big lol!!!!! Of course the ICE had a rough beginning which the electric starter solved and it quickly went to revolutionise the mechanisation of the world from agriculture to mining , construction, ships, trains...... and still does it much better today

@fallingwater 8 ай бұрын

And then Detroit came along...

@saginaw60 8 ай бұрын

For me the real problem was not battery, but controls. Today we quickly pulse power on/off at full voltage, to get desired torque, with little waste. Old autos were cursed with linear torque that could break axles, or they used resisters that created heat, wasting power when less power was needed.

@danielzhang1916 6 ай бұрын

yeah we didn't have the technology then, it didn't work until the Prius and hybrids came out, then we were able to switch to EV, it would have been impossible 100 years ago to make it, that's why all the early ones didn't work, why are we still using gas today after all this time, because it was the easiest solution to get the car running

@martinb.770 6 ай бұрын

At 8:25 it looks like some "4 bit" power control, but there is no clue if this was solved by some resistor network or by re-arranging the batteries in different configurations of serial/parallel circuits, as indicated by the voltmeter, that shows a range of much more than the 12V lead blocks would deliver.

@lindsaycole8409 4 ай бұрын

Another solution that this car might have is to tap the winding of the motor at various points. Essentially you have 1/3, 2/3, and whole of the winding powered and so power and draw from the battery scaling with that as well.

@vylbird8014 4 ай бұрын

@@lindsaycole8409 I can imagine ways of achieving power control using some commutator selection as well - you'd need to have multiple ones with different degrees of 'dead space' and select as needed. Plenty of ways. Resistors are just the cheapest option, consisting of nothing more than some coiled-up wire and asbestos supports.

@lindsaycole8409 4 ай бұрын

@@vylbird8014 With combinations of solutions through competitive development it should have been possible to get a power-efficient "analog" electromechanical solution with a decent level of fine control probably by the teens. But history didn't go that way and it was all petrol from there on.

@mirandahotspring4019 7 ай бұрын

Love it! Amazing its lasted so long, but then a motor with only one moving part.. But don't forget that electric milk floats were in continual use in the UK and other European countries for decades and electric forklifts are still in widespread use in factories and warehouses around the world.

@OKFrax-ys2op 5 ай бұрын

Well said, those hater’s love their battery powered phones 📞🤔😝

@jamesellsworth9673 8 ай бұрын

THANK YOU for making the best ever look at the original electric cars.

@StuartAT 8 ай бұрын

You spoke of electric, steam, and petrol cars, but failed to mention the Ford Nucleon concept car? What could possibly have gone wrong with that idea? Keep up the good work 👌

@klausstock8020 7 ай бұрын

The Ford Nucleon never took off (literally) because we knew that we'd have flying cars in the 1970s. And a nuclear-powered VTOL, like the Bell D-1007, would have been huge, maybe 300ft (100m), like the Bell D-1007. But since weight (mass) is an issue for flying cars/helicopters, radiation shielding was inferior to that in ground cars. An estimate is that every hour travelled in a Bell D-1007 would increase the likelihood of getting cancer by 2.5%. So we knew that nuclear-powered cars could never fly. The helicopter engine would have, apparently, heated air to drive turbines. The Ford Nucleon would have had a steam turbine, making it a steam car (plus a second turbine to generate electricity). But I guess it's coming back. In 2009, Cadillac introduced the World Thorium Fuel Concept. Seriously? Seriously. They did choose that name. The Cadillac WTF Concept is also a steam car. They claim that it can run 1,000,000 miles on 8 grams of thorium.

@mbyard356 8 ай бұрын

Cracking good show, chaps!

@MichaelSengers 6 ай бұрын

You guys are so great. You make electric cars great fun 🎉

@Ink_25 7 ай бұрын

Another thing of note of the Waverly Model 22 from 1901: no bumpers! Traffic was rather chaotic back then, but the low speeds made crashes not as deadly as they would become a few years later with faster traffic and vehicles not designed with accidents in mind. Only then would bumpers be widely introduced.

@mattcbinns 8 ай бұрын

I’m been a passenger in a Ford model T at the Henry Ford museum, there are a number of cars driving a predefined route around the grounds. And the thing I remember the most is the slick of oil on the roads due to all those cars. What a shame electric didn’t win out back then…

@CptAngelKGaming 8 ай бұрын

Electric cars were garbage before lithium batteries so it couldn't have worked back then or even 30 years ago.

@noscwoh1 8 ай бұрын

Well, so many cars had total loss oilers, but driving on dusty dirt roads makes that actually a benefit.

@noscwoh1 8 ай бұрын

@@CptAngelKGaming "Garbage" how, exactly? Early electrics did exactly what they were supposed to. They were cheaper than a horse, faster than a horse, and got you into town and back. Lead acid and Edison cells were nearly infinitely rebuildable.

@matthewgodwin3050 8 ай бұрын

@@noscwoh1 Probably for the same reason EVs are still plagued in 2023; inadequate charging infrastructure and long recharging times. Much more convenient to poor 5 or 6 gallons of a flammable liquid into a sealed tank with a screw top lid.

@CptAngelKGaming 8 ай бұрын

@@noscwoh1 Super underpowered with no range. It's not rocket science..

@recumbentrocks2929 8 ай бұрын

What a great episode! And what an amazing car. Loved the history and humour, well done guys and your team.

@JeffDeWitt 7 ай бұрын

Really enjoyed this, but have two quibbles. I would have liked a LOT better look at that controller, it looked like a fascinating bit of turn of the last century tech. The other is you didn't tell us where the car was made? (I looked it up, Waverly, later Pope-Waverly, was in Indianapolis, Indiana).

@accesser 8 ай бұрын

Great fun video, Perhaps we need one of those small boutique EV manufactures to do a run of these

@LoneWolf-wp9dn 8 ай бұрын

There were a bunch of electric cars with lead acid batteries over the years some did move some units... but if im not mistaken Pb batteries you can only draw them down to 50%... more than that and youre hurting their longevity... thats what i heard about some batteries used as backup storage... dont know if it applied to the cars as well... but that would seriously limit the range

@andrewallen9993 8 ай бұрын

That is the problem EXACTLY with pb cars. Batteries shouldn't be discharged below 70% if you want your traction battery to last 5 years or so.

@peterduxbury927 8 ай бұрын

When you drop a Pb Battery lower than 10.7 volts, sulphation damage begins....

@howardsimpson489 8 ай бұрын

Submarines proved this when forced to remain submerged on batteries for too long. Going below 70% was not too bad if solid charging started immediately, too bad about the bombers cruising overhead.

@spokehedz 8 ай бұрын

I have not laughed at an upload on youtube quite as hard as I did when Robert had a sudden bit of spontaneous 'acting' happen on his lovely test ride.

@kuromiLayfe 7 ай бұрын

amazing vehicle , definitely would get in one if i ever come across it in a classic cars meetup or something

@singlesideman 8 ай бұрын

There were no cars in the 1930s that were $200 that I'm aware of, except for used cars, of course. If you're talking about the Ford Model T, which was responsible for something like 40% of all of the cars on the road by 1925, that's when the Model T's price had been lowered to $260, which was dirt cheap. That's about a little more than $4,600 today. That is incredible. Try to buy a decent car today that will last for a hundred years plus for that amount of money. It won't happen. Model Ts were made of vanadium steel that was really thick and incredibly tough. They're amazing.

@TheTonycima 8 ай бұрын

The only problem with my EV is software. A car without it. Could catch on! 😊

@theairstig9164 8 ай бұрын

It’s well within the capabilities of anyone with an internet connection to make their own. There are golf carts running brushed motors and rheostatic controls from industrial systems. A VESC upgrade would really be the only thing needed

@howardsimpson489 8 ай бұрын

Problem is multiple lithium cells need precision idiot proof battery management systems, even then they make splendid incendiaries.

@fetB 7 ай бұрын

@@howardsimpson489 how so. If the BMS is idot proof, the battery is just fine. Thats like saying you cant trust that gasolin thing because it could just catch a spark somewhere