A Short History of Electric Vehicles

It wasn't until 1893, however, that the Frenchman Charles Jeantaud founded the first automotive company, which for years only built electric vehicles under the brand name "Jeantaud". The French racing driver Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the first confirmed speed record in a Jeantaud. He later increased this to 92 km/h in 1899. However, it was his rival, the Belgian Camille Jenatzy, who broke the magical 100 km/h limit, also in 1899. The torpedo-shaped electric car "La Jamais Contente", which he constructed himself, achieved just under 106 km/h! Land speed records were soon followed by long-distance records: Whilst in 1899 a Jeantaud had a reach of 140 kilometers without charging, one year later this lay at 262 kilometers, until in 1901, an electric car by the "Compagnie Parisienne des Voitures Électriques Système Kriéger" managed a distance of 307 kilometers on one charge.

Another American, lawyer George Baldwin Selden, attempted to create a monopoly for automotive manufacturing by means of the Selden patent. His objective was that every manufacturer of gasoline-powered vehicles should pay him license fees. As early as 1879 he had patented the motorcar as a general concept. This was based on the Brayton engine, which was not widely known. In 1899, the Electric Vehicle Company joined this lucrative business to monopolize the taxi sector with battery-powered vehicles. It was Henry Ford who finally defeated Selden's concept in 1911.

Not much later, Ford got together with his friend Thomas Edison to offer an affordable electric vehicle for the masses. They created two prototypes of the Edison-Ford, as the vehicle was called. However, part of the factory was destroyed by a fire – cause unknown. Speculations quickly arose that pointed to the oil cartels as the culprits.

The twenties were primarily characterized by the offer of electric commercial vehicles. Selling whole fleets was a good business model: Food and drink suppliers were among the customers, as were laundries and newspaper publishers. In Germany, commercial vehicle suppliers such as AEG, Bergmann, Bleichert, Hansa-Lloyd, Siemens-Schuckert or the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen delivered various types of light commercial vehicles with payloads up to five tons. However, customers could also purchase the other electric vehicle extreme: electric microcars. These were offered by S&B and Hawa in Germany and by Automatic in North America. Whilst small electric vehicles could be charged easily at any regular domestic socket, the larger vehicles got their power at special charging stations.

After the German occupation of France during World War II, gasoline was strictly rationed. For this reason, numerous French companies once again turned to the electric drive. This resulted in a diverse range of models, from microcars up to eight-ton trucks. Peugeot developed its first electric city car, the VLV one-seater (VLV stands for Voiture Légère de Ville - light city car). Due to fuel shortages, several countries converted existing vehicles with gasoline engines to electric ones. In Italy, Lancia and Maserati even built electric commercial vehicles.