Electric Vehicle

http://electricvehiclesnews.com/History/Companies/ElectricVehicle.htm

Electric Vehicle Company
1899-1907 the new name of the Electric Carriage and Wagon Co.

The Electric Vehicle Company was founded founded by Henry G. Morris and Pedro G. Salom in 1899 by the merger of Pope Manufacturing Company and two smaller firms. The company pioneered the use of pressed steel for wheels, and its cars featured front-wheel drive and brakes, and rear-wheel steering.
Electric Cabs in NYC

In 1899, ninety percent of the cabs in New York City were electric and Jacob German was the first man to be arrested for speeding. He was a New York taxi driver who was arrested after being caught doing 12 mph on Lexington Avenue. By 1900, the Electric Vehicle Company had put hundreds of its electric Hansom cabs, modeled after the design of its horse-drawn predecessors, on the streets of the metropolis. The Hansoms eliminated the need for a differential by providing a separate motor and axle for each rear wheel.

Beginning in 1901, the Electric Vehicle Company produced both gasoline-powered and electric automobiles.

In 1904, the Electric Vehicle Company built 2000 taxicabs, trucks, and buses, and set up subsidiary cab and car rental companies from New York to Chicago.
In 1907 Electric Vehicle went into the receivership.

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Electric cars
images from google images

http://www.electricvehiclesnews.com/History/historyearlyIII.htm
==William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa built the first successful electric automobile in the United States in 1891.

Born in Scotland Morrison arrived in Des Moines in 1880 as a chemist. In 1887 he made an unsuccessful attempt to build a car but the center-pivot steering didn’t work. He then commissioned a fringe top surrey from the Des Moines Buggy Company, that he electrified in September of 1890, to demonstrate his new battery (patented 1891 with L. Schmidt). It may have been the first land vehicle steered with a wheel, and featured his patented rack and pinion steering gear (Immisch may have done both a year earlier). Watchmaker Dr. Lew Arntz did the mechanical modifications. Powered by 24 of his lead-acid storage cells (48 volts) with 112 Ampere-hours capacity it weighed two tons. A spur gear on a four horse-power Siemens trolley-car motor, that Morrison rewound to work at a lower voltage more practical for battery application (about 15% of trolley car voltage), this drove a large ring gear on the right rear wheel. This car became very influential when the American Battery Company of Chicago purchased it for $3,600 to demonstrate their commercial version of the Morrison battery at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition. At the fair almost everyone who would be influential in early motoring history saw the carriage.

1894 The Electrobat was the first successful electric automobile. It was designed and built by mechanical engineer Henry G. Morris and chemist Pedro G. Salom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both had backgrounds in battery streetcars and, as the battery streetcar business was fading, they teamed up to make battery road vehicles. Their effort was patented on August 31, 1894. Built like a small version of a battery streetcar, it was a slow (it ran at 15 mph), heavy, impractical vehicle with steel tires to support the immense weight of its large lead battery. It entered production in 1895. Later they redesigned the Electrobat (with some help from Walter Baker’s axles and bearings) first as a racecar then as an electric hansom cab.

Woods Motor Vehicle Company was a manufacturer of electric automobiles in Chicago, Illinois between 1899 and 1916. The company was started by Clinton Edgar Woods who wrote the first book on electric vehicles.
The 1904 Woods Stanhope was a Stanhope model. It could seat 2 passengers and sold for US$1800. Twin electric motors, situated at the rear of the car, produced 2.5 hp (1.9 kW) each. The car weighed 2650 lb (1202 kg) with a 40 cell battery.

The 1904 Woods Victoria was a carriage-styled model. It could seat 2 passengers and sold for US$1900. The same twin electric motors as the Stanhope were used, though a 4-speed transmission was fitted. The car weighed 2,700 pounds (1,200 kg). 40 batteries were also used, with an 18 mph (29 km/h) top speed.
Early hybrid

At $2,700, The Dual Power Model 44 Coupe had a 4 cylinder internal combustion engine as well as electric power. Below 15 mph (24 km/h) the car was electric-powered and above it the conventional engine took over to take the vehicle to a maximum of around 35 mph (56 km/h). It is today considered a historic hybrid electric vehicle.