The Detroit Electric Car

As previously discussed, electric driving was not of much interest to people during its debut. Most of the conditions that lead to its development were individual breakouts of innovations with electromagnetics. For instance, Thomas Davenports’ goal was to have his electric motor power street cars replace steam powered vehicles. To continue the development of his electric motor, Davenport traveled to Washington D.C. to exhibit his machine before the patent office and have it registered. However, due to lack of money he returned home without success and never got to fully develop electric motors that could drive around the streets. Different conditions in society lead to contributions in the development of electric cars. For example, gasoline-powered …show more content…
However, from 1911 to 1916 they also produced a vehicle that utilized Edison’s nickel-iron battery with an additional charge, that would reliably get to 80 miles between battery charging. As advertised, the Detroit Electric was dependable and quick to start, which was why it was mainly demanded and sold to women and doctors. Parallel to this time, Henry Ford started producing his Model T since the combustion engine was booming. However, Ford eventually bought three different Detroit electric cars since he and his wife, Clara, preferred a safer and more reliable automobile, which resulted to be an electric car instead of their own gasoline-powered cars. Between 1907 and 1939, The Detroit Electric company had produced 13,000 electric cars, most of them still looked like carriages made in the 1800s, as can be seen in the following …show more content…
“One major benefit of electric vehicles is the “displacement” of harmful air pollutants from urban to rural areas, where population exposure is lower.” Their energy efficiency outperforms conventional cars since an electric car’s tank-to-wheel efficiency is in the range of 60 to 80%. Generally electric cars save most energy at low speeds and in situations involving frequently-changing driving dynamics, which is also one of the main reasons of why cities are a prime target market. Assuming that electricity generation will continue to increase in the future, electric cars could considerably reduce greenhouse gasses. Issues like pollution, higher gas prices, and impending oil shortage as well as major technology improvements, have caused a burst of activity in the electric car industry since its impact in society continues to be very