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."

Comments

Generalizing much?

[ugen]

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...

Re:Generalizing much?

[Attila Dimedici]

The modern ICE car is quite some distance removed from the ICE cars of the 1880s as well and no one tries to pass it off as new technology that just needs a few more years to reach maturity.

Re:Generalizing much?

[FishTankX]

This may on the surface be true. But the primary technological challenge with electric vehicles is battery technology, and this has been under development for a century and a half. Maybe even 2. Even still, though rechargeable batteries have gone up in capacity maybe 10x, it is still not anywhere near competing with ICE vehicles cost effectively. That will come when the air-chemistry batteries hit the market, with another 10x increase in energy storage per volume/weight due to negating the need to carry your cathode. (or is it anode?)

Hmm

[fiannaFailMan]

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.

Re:Hmm

[Dahamma]

You forgot "helped drive the consumer solar industry in the US".

Man, that dude is just plan LUCKY. There can't be any other explanation. No matter how many lottery tickets *I* buy they don't seem to lead to a string of successful multibillion dollar businesses that all practically revolutionized their respective industries. But maybe next week...

Thank you...

[fiannaFailMan]

...for producing the first informative post on this whole sorry thread.

Gawd slashdot has gone downhill over the years!

Re:Um...

[PolygamousRanchKid]

In a country where the chief executive makes claims that the US invented the automobile....

To be fair to Obama, his actual statement was:

"I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

And Germany has heeded his advice, and not walked away from it. But Obama bugged the phone of Angela Merkel to find that out.

Now if Obama says:

"If you like your car, you can keep it."

. . . you will know that new government regulation to take your car off the road is underway . . .