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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.
I can't go very fast!
Or very far!
And if you buy me,
People will think you're gay.
modern American fatasses?
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
...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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.