David Le Page If ever the history of a particular technology demonstrated how human progress can be undermined by greed, power and machismo, it is that of the electric vehicle. And it is a repetitive history – a constant cycle of disappointed
optimism has unfolded throughout the 20th century as the time for electric vehicles has repeatedly seemed to come, only to vanish under yet another wave of internal combustive fervour.
“An electric [car] . costs far less to operate than the average standard-sized gas car, is better suited to urban traffic than some European models and has quicker
acceleration. Seven different companies are known to be cooking up electric automobiles.” This was written not last year, but 40 years ago, in the United States Saturday Evening Post. Unfortunately, progress in the development of electric vehicles has been frustrated by two things: slow development of battery technology, and the vested interests of the oil and internal combustion industries. But despite these constant problems, there is a hidden history of electric vehicles of which few are aware. They are 165 years old – far older than the internal
combustion engine. The first electric vehicle was demonstrated in The Netherlands by a Professor Stratingh, in 1835.
There were literally hundreds of electric taxis operating in New York in 1900. They were helped by a design that allowed batteries to be swapped quickly, so that recharging did not demand lingering. The first car ever to go faster than 100kph was an electric car. Belgian Camille Jenatzy broke the world land speed record in his La Jamais Contente in 1899. In fact, more than a third of all pre-World War I US motor vehicles were electrically powered, with up to 29 companies building them. Unfortunately, soon the internal combustion engine began to show considerable advantages of speed, power and distance, catching the fancy of men. One of the key elements in the downfall of the electric vehicle was the invention of the electric starter motor for internal combustion engines (ICE). Before then, it had been difficult for women to manage the physical cranking of the engine required to start most cars. But even after the development of the starter motor, women tended still to enjoy the quieter and more sedate electric vehicles. In fact, in 1960 it was still possible to find many old ladies in US cities driving their 40-year-old
electric vehicles, which would stand up well against some of today’s products. The 1920 Detroit Electric got more than 160km on a single charge, though its maximum speed was 56kph. In comparison, the 1997 General Motors EV1, though it has twice the top speed, gets just 146km a single charge. The Detroit Electric Car company, the last of its breed, was finally closed down in 1940, having produced its last model in 1935.
But long before then, technologies that are often considered late 20th century had appeared in electric vehicles.
Regenerative braking, for example, which slows an electric car by feeding power from its wheels to a generator, was invented in 1913 by Charles P Steinmetz. The fuel cell, now considered a key technology for making the modern electric vehicle viable, was being seriously examined as long ago as 1960. Fuel cells, which work by combining hydrogen and oxygen, became a comparatively well-known technology after being used on the Apollo space programme. Jerome Malinowski worked in the belly of the beast: in the Detroit automotive industry in the 1960s, when US cars grew to notorious sizes and weights, taking advantage of cheap oil prices without regard to economy, safety or the environment.
Those trends were reversed abruptly in the 1970s when the cost of oil spiralled, but as the price of fuel has come down again, vehicle manufacturers have allowed their products to get heavier and consumers haven’t protested. Malinowski firmly believes that the time for electric vehicles has finally come, technologically. Environmental initiatives in California and New England have put increasing pressure on car manufacturers involved in the US market to come up with low- or no- emissions vehicles. These have included the General Motors EV1 and recently the Honda Insight, a two-person hybrid-electric that has been ranked as the most fuel-efficient vehicle on US roads by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Insight, which has a light-weight all-aluminium construction and a one litre electric-assisted standard engine, does about 26km a litre in town driving. In contrast, the Land Rover Range Rover manages just more than 5km a litre in town driving, making it the worst of all current SUVs on US roads.
The Insight works by using the ICE component for constant power, and the electric motor for assistance during acceleration. The motor works as a generator when the car is slowing down. The whole vehicle is helped by being extremely streamlined, by partial rear-wheel covers and by a flat under-body profile. The Insight is expected to sell for less than $20 000, or about R140 000. Initial sales should be helped by nnnthe current escalation in nnthe price of oil. Malinowski is also excited by a little- publicised project in the Kruger Park, where Eskom is running an electric-powered
Nissan four-ton truck, enabling night game drives to be undertaken without noise, vibration or diesel fumes. Of course, this project is aided by the 20kph speed limit in the park – the modified Nissan truck isn’t capable of going much faster. One of the disappointments of 20th-century vehicle design has been the extent to which aerodynamics have been ignored. Malinowski points out that even in the 19th century pioneers were experimenting with streamlining. But this knowledge has largely been ignored, with a few notable exceptions such as the all-aluminium Porsche 356 of the 1950s, with its 0,3 drag co-efficient.
Other promising technologies for 21st- century vehicle design include the development of new lightweight materials of incredible strength. Malinowski has gained experience with these materials while helping with the design of bobsleds. They include aluminium-beryllium alloys of unprecendented
strength for the aluminium alloy group, as well as fibre composites that are used with great success in Formula One racing.
Not least of the hopes for the future of electric, low- emission and hybrid vehicles is the growing involvement of traditional manufacturers in developing alternative
vehicles. They include BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Nissan, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Hopefully, the more success these manufacturers achieve with non-ICE vehicles, the less they will have to lose from the threat to their traditional market.