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Meet the Electric Porsche From 1898
cartechboy writes "We all talk about the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf as if electric cars are brand-new. In fact, electric cars were around long before you were alive, or your father, or maybe even your grandfather. It turns out that the very first Porsche ever built was an electric car--way back in 1898. It wasn't called a Porsche, but an 'Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model'--or P1 for short. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche when he was just 22 years old, it has a rear electric drive unit producing all of 3 horsepower--and an overdrive mode to boost that to a frightening 5 hp! It had an impressive range of 49 miles, not that much less than many of today's plug-in cars. Porsche recently recovered the P1 from a warehouse--where it has supposedly sat untouched since 1902--and plans to display it in original, unrestored condition at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany."
Does the article really need to begin with ridiculous generalization?
"We all talk about the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf as if electric cars are brand-new. In fact, electric cars were around long before you were alive, or your father, or maybe even your grandfather. It turns out...."
Yes, yes - the readers on slashdot are morons, who have absolutely no idea about most basic technology. "We all" are so dumb, we think the wheel was invented yesterday. Hurr-durr...
Bad guy this porsche.
> We all talk about the Tesla Model S and Nissan
> Leaf as if electric cars are brand-new.
People who don't know history do, I suppose. In the early years, electric, steam, and various fuels were used in cars. It was about 25 years before the internal combustion engine dominated the industry. The first line of the Wikipedia page on electric cars (after defining what one is) says "The first electric cars appeared in the 1880s."
Is it bad that I read the headline as "Meet the Erotic Porsche from 1898"?
Might need a fresh waxing.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
It won races, the other cars of the era wont so fast either.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Too much cookie dough, dough boy.
And there's a great summary of electric vehicles in the US 100+ years ago on his page.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/...
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
This is ground breaking! This changes everything!
You're telling me that Porsche built...a MID ENGINED car?
Made a fortune on the internet.
Started a car manufacturing company producing high-tech electric vehicles that make anything produced in Detroit these days look like a Model T.
Building spaceships to take tourists out of the atmosphere.
"Just lucky in life"? Maybe, but it makes me wonder what you've achieved lately.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
The Porsche 918 says you're an idiot.
...for producing the first informative post on this whole sorry thread.
Gawd slashdot has gone downhill over the years!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Unless the rate of progress speeds up the past might catch up, or even pass us.
Sadly there are too many inventions that are an improvement upon their successors.
I wonder if Porsche could use this for inspiration for a future hybrid solar-human vehicle?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Sounds like we need to call you an electric Whaaaaambulance stat!
3 or 4 days ago?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I would've loved to see the state of batteries had the electric car been popular throughout the decades. We've put up with the stone-age ICE for too long, a technology which has and will barely see any improvement relative to batteries which could be so amazing (even in 5000 years, batteries will be the universal way to power portable appliances like the car).
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
nevermind there were more electric vehicles in widespread use before there were many gas stations 1898 is a pretty early example
http://insideevs.com/in-early-...
My great-grandfather used to read his newspaper while sitting on his back porsche.
You would be the idiot. Porsche cars suck. They are under powered and can't handle worth shit.
Underpowered for what? 1/4 mile times? Yup, they are.
But my '65 356 w/ 75 hp engine can out corner a brand new production Camero or just about any other muscle car. Granted, on the straight aways I'll get the rust blown off my doors, but Porsche owns cornering and handling.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Sometimes fads repeat themselves.
In two decades' time, we'll look back on electric cars as a failed experiment.
Just like last time we tried.
A battery is one of many possible stores of chemical energy. It's absurd to think that it's the best.
Have gnu, will travel.
Here is a GT3 getting its ass handed to it in the corners by an FRS and a mustang.
I suspect my Toyota MR2 would probably do very well in the same corners. It's advantage is the mid engine design which improves weight distribution. Performance wise though, I've little doubt I'd be passed on the straighaways, although some MR2's were competative there as well.
Porsche owns cornering and handling.
That's because it's a Volkswagen.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
In two decades' time, we'll look back on electric cars as a failed experiment.
90% efficiency vs. 25% (merely for starters) says you're wrong.
A battery is one of many possible stores of chemical energy. It's absurd to think that it's the best.
Maybe, as long as what you convert it to is electrical energy. So, might as well call it a "battery", which actually only means "a collection of cells". It says nothing about what those cells must do.
It's spelled "Camaro".
And handling performance, unfortunately for you, is easily measured. I don't have skidpad and slalom times on hand for your 356C-- probably because no one tested them then. But we could now, and it will be quite hilarious to watch you try to match the .89G skidpad performance of the bone-stock Camaro SS in your 356C on 185mm tires with 14" wheels. And then the slalom, with your swing axle jacking the rear wheels... hah.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Efficiency means nothing if you don't have energy density. These vehicles have to move people around in a practical manner. If efficiency was all that mattered, we could use lead-acid batteries.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Underpowered for what? 1/4 mile times? Yup, they are.
But my '65 356 w/ 75 hp engine can out corner a brand new production Camero or just about any other muscle car.
Erm, that isn't an accomplishment.
Muscle cars corner like absolute crap due to their heavy weight poor weight distribution. Saying you can out-corner a muscle car is like saying you have more personality than a chemistry teacher's cardigan.
Hatchbacks like Toyota Corolla's out corner American muscle cars. Try to out corner a modern Subaru Impreza with it's AWD system. Even the non turbo Impreza that only has 100 odd KW corner faster and smoother than 2-400 KW muscle cars, let alone the twin turbo WRX STI...
Cornering ability is not a function of engines, its' a function weight and weight distribution.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
scare the shit out of me.
I don't mean not knowing the exact date when the first electrical car was built. But people should have some general idea of the development of a technology in common use.
Consider it payback for mutilating the word Jaguar.
And the Camaro is a terrible handling car. Oversteer galore and due to all the weight being at the front and all the power being at the back, you lose the back end far too easily. Granted, it's not as bad as the Mustang, but still not good. I believe that his ancient car would out corner a Camaro because it's likely to weigh under half as much, but not a car with a decent cornering ability like a WRX or EVO.
BTW, if you want lateral G forces, try a proper drift pig like a Nissan S13.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
"Cornering ability is not a function of engines, its' a function weight and weight distribution."
its also well designed modern suspension
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Front-heavy RWD cars tend to understeer unless you apply power, which allows you to control the balance.
Back-heavy RWD designs like Porsche require a highly skilled driver to handle the inherent oversteer. A dangerous type of car for the boy racer.
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It's freaky to see that even more than a century ago there already was an electric car (even races were held back then) and development on it just stopped a century ago and we aren't even much further as back then..
So what's the deal? Why did they stop? And even more interesting, what would an electric car look like these days if they kept on developing it back then.........
Since all you're doing with that extra density is wasting it on inefficiency.
Come back to me when an ICE can manage 90% efficiency.
Some industrial applications demand much more power, but 5 horse power is more than enough for personal transportation. There's no need for cars built like tanks. I get around just dandy with less than a quarter horse power.