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Meet the Electric Porsche From 1898

Posted by samzenpus on from the 40-rods-to-the-hogshead dept.

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."

25 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Generalizing much? by ugen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

    1. Re:Generalizing much? by bob_super · · Score: 2

      Next week we'll teach you how the first car above 100km/h was electric.
      Stay tuned shortly afterwards for the amazing discovery of DNA...

    2. Re:Generalizing much? by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      do you really know when the first electric car was invented without looking it up? it was in the 1830s...

    3. Re:Generalizing much? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have repeatedly had people tell me that electric cars are "new technology that needs to be given time to mature." They never react well when I point out that electric cars have been around more or less as long as internal combustion engine cars. So, yes, that beginning was warranted.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    4. Re:Generalizing much? by ezzthetic · · Score: 2

      Any history of motorised transport will mention electric and steam-powered vehicles.

      There's the opening lines of the old folk song "He's Been on the Job Too Long":

      "Well its twinkle, twinkle little star
      And along comes Brady in his 'lectric car..."

      --
      You know what they say about opinions. They're all fabulous!
    5. Re:Generalizing much? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    6. Re:Generalizing much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm willing to bet a majority of Slashdot readers have no idea electric cars were A Thing before petrol. And that Porsche created a successful hybrid not long after the vehicle in question. And I know I'd win a bet if I said 95% of ALL motorists have no idea about the history of cars. Yes, the statement is warranted esp. to an audience who is not educated on car history. You know that signifigant minority of drivers have no idea if their car is FWD, RWD or AWD and I would even think that percentage would be higher here, where knowledge of cars is scant?

      And to answer a statement made later in discussion - not knowing car history is moronic? NO. It's damn well understandable given knowledge of cars is thin at best for most people and it is not relavent as well. It's only people like me who take an interest in car history that it's relavent.

      Even someone who does know more than a bit about cars had no idea Porsche made a successful heavy vehicle hybrid. Hybrids were actually quite a thing it turns out for heavier vehicles as the automobile developed.

      Could we have a computer analogy?

    7. Re:Generalizing much? by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's because modern ICE cars have been under continuous development for over a century. Electric cars had a few early models, then languished undeveloped for a hundred years, before we recently started up development of them again.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    8. Re:Generalizing much? by FishTankX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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?)

    9. Re:Generalizing much? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      The only electrode that has a potential for a 10X weight improvement is hydrogen, which is difficult to store.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    10. Re:Generalizing much? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2

      The reason they "languished" was because every time someone tried to make them a viable option, they ran up against the same constraint: batteries are just not a dense enough energy storage medium. People have been trying off and on since automobiles were first developed to make an electric car that can compete with ICE. So far, they have failed to do so. While that may change, that change does NOT make electric cars a new technology that is just now being developed. It is a technology that has been around for over a century and has yet to achieve the breakthrough which will make it take off. Recent developments may change that, but don't give me the "all new technology takes time to develop" line.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  2. Re:Um... by mschaffer · · Score: 3, Informative

    In a country where the chief executive makes claims that the US invented the automobile....yest, it is appropriate to assume we are all ignorant.

  3. 105 years in a warehouse by symbolset · · Score: 2

    Might need a fresh waxing.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  4. Re:I'm an electric car! by stox · · Score: 2

    It won races, the other cars of the era wont so fast either.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  5. Jay Leno has a 1909 Baker Electric by Megahard · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  6. Hmm by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Hmm by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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...

    2. Re:Hmm by gargleblast · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Building spaceships to take tourists out of the atmosphere.

      Err - that would be Branson. Musk is concentrating on real astronauts, real payloads and real destinations.

    3. Re:Hmm by GauteL · · Score: 2

      He's got a reputation as a Playboy and admittedly has a very punchable face. This seems to be enough to brand him a shameless opportunist and dickhead, despite the fact that he's both successful and has chosen to invest his time and money into companies that actually do properly cool stuff which may have positive impact on the world.

      If he's a shameless dickhead I hope for more shameless dickheads in the world.

    4. Re:Hmm by risom · · Score: 2

      Started a car manufacturing company producing high-tech electric vehicles that make anything produced in Detroit these days look like a Model T.

      At the risk of being nit-picky: Musk only invested in Tesla, not started it. The investment was significant and included the right for Musk to call himself co-founder IIRC.

    5. Re:Hmm by Dahamma · · Score: 2

      True. I guess it's hard to separate arrogance from leadership. A surprising number of CEOs are literally borderline sociopathic :)

      I think my biggest complaint of Musk is that after accepting almost $500M in loans from the government for Tesla (not to mention the billions on battery research and $7500 credit per Tesla sold), $100M in grants for Solar City (and untold billions on solar panel research), and who knows how much money for Space X (over $1B, I think? Plus nearly a trillion dollars in space research over the years), he has the gall to claim the government should not be in the business of providing subsidies to companies. Shameless opportunist and dickhead, indeed. But a brilliant shameless opportunist and dickhead...

  7. Re:Um... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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 . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  8. Re:The wrong path chosen by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2

    Maybe the reason the electric car stopped being popular was because batteries are NOT such a good way to power a "portable appliance like a car"?

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  9. Re:Um... by GrahamCox · · Score: 2

    There was a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jamais_Contente

  10. Freaky... by SuperDre · · Score: 2

    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.........