A 1911 Detroit Electric is seen at the California Automobile Museum. Detroit Electric grew out of the Anderson Carriage Company and would become the most popular and longest lived electric vehicle on the road, lasting from 1907 to 1939. (WIKIPEDIA PHOTO)
A 1911 Detroit Electric is seen at the California Automobile Museum. Detroit Electric grew out of the Anderson Carriage Company and would become the most popular and longest lived electric vehicle on the road, lasting from 1907 to 1939. (WIKIPEDIA PHOTO)
For many car enthusiasts and average consumers loathe to change, electric vehicles are a turn down the wrong road. But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, EVs were among the first vehicles to make the transition from horse-drawn carriage to self-propelled automobile.
The Columbus Buggy Co. achieved success in 1903, employing a cast of leaders like Clinton D. Firestone and Joseph F. Firestone, president and V.P., and also father and brother respectively of Harvey S. Firestone who went on to build his namesake tire empire; Lee Frayer, race car driver and 1911 Indy 500 competitor; and Eddie Rickenbacker, future American top flying ace pilot in World War I with 26 aerial victories and often erroneously credited with shooting down the “Red Baron,” Manfred von Richthofen — but that was actually Snoopy. Nah, just kidding, responsibility for defeat of the “Red Baron” has never been conclusively settled.
The first Columbus electric was a folding top runabout that was soon joined by a coupe, station wagon and surrey. In an endurance run from Newport, R.I., to Boston, a Columbus made it on one charge at an average 12 mph with 15 miles in reserve. That car was driven by George M. Bacon who left the company in 1907 to become chief engineer and designer for Detroit Electric.
Detroit Electric grew out of the Anderson Carriage Company and would become the most popular and longest lived electric vehicle on the road. Introduced in 1907, Detroit Electric produced 125 cars by the end of their first year and that number would grow to 400 with their closed cab inside-drive coupe in 1908.
Front and rear battery packs were designed around center-mounted controls. The bodies were tall and aluminum was used to help offset the weight and they offered chainless shaft drive. Detroit Electrics were the first cars to use curved side glass to help eliminate blind spots. The estimated distance on one charge was 80 miles at a 25 mph top speed, making them ideal for city use and at least one test car traveled 211 miles on a single charge. In 1909, the company produced 650 Detroit Electric cars.
The Detroit Electric Model 60 could reach 20 mph and featured dual controls so it could be driven from either the front or rear seat. Fourteen six-volt Edison batteries were harnessed by a sophisticated controller that varied the speed of the car by connecting the batteries in either series or parallel depending on which of the five speeds were selected.
Advertisements in popular periodicals like National Geographic and The Saturday Evening Post touted the Detroit Electric would "take you anywhere that an automobile may go with a mileage radius farther than you will ever care to travel in a day." By the end of 1910, Detroit Electric had produced 1,500 cars for the year.
Electric cars were clean, didn’t require hand-cranking to start, and there was no complicated shifting necessary which appealed to women and professionals like doctors. The superintendent of the Detroit Electric factory employed his daughter, Lillian Reynolds, to sell these cars to women, making her the first known automobile saleswoman and later landing her in the Automotive Hall of Fame for her efforts.
Customers included Clara Ford, wife of Henry Ford, who drove a Detroit Electric into the 1930s. Other notable owners were Mrs. Henry Joy, wife of the Packard Motor Car Company president, the wives of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Thomas Edison, as well as (fittingly) Thomas Edison himself, also a close friend of Henry Ford.
Ironically, it was a different electric invention that spelled the beginning of the end for early EVs, the electric starter. Charles F. Kettering, a prolific inventor and engineer, solved the issue of hand-cranking the internal combustion engine and with his electric starter, the popularity of gas-powered cars grew.
Manufacturing advances from those like Henry Ford also brought down gasoline-powered automobile prices. In 1914, a Model-T could be bought for under $500 while a Detroit Electric cost four times as much. The timing of World War I also lent to the electric vehicle's decline as the war machine's need for copper and lead was also used in battery production, driving up costs and drying up supplies.
The final nail in the coffin of early EVs was the Great Depression, and despite efforts to focus on electric delivery vehicles for inner cities, the market just wasn’t there. The last Detroit Electric was built in 1939 and marked the end of the 35,000 produced.
Eric and Michelle Meltzer own and operate Fryeburg Motors, a licensed, full-service automotive sales and service facility at 26 Portland St. in Fryeburg, Maine. More than a business, cars are a passion, and they appreciate anything that drives, rides, floats or flies. For more, email fryeburgmotors@gmail.com.
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