Swiss engineers unveil early electric vehicle

With electric cars poised to play an ever-greater role in getting us from A to B, it is interesting to note that engineers were already aware of their commercial potential more than a century ago.

An article in The Engineer’s 1903 archive described the work of Campagnie de l’Industrie Electrique of Geneva, which had successfully developed a double electric Phaeton.

The car had a top speed of 12.5mph (20kph) and was fitted with large batteries made up of 40 cells and a capacity of 120Ah.

’For a speed of 20kph, the current required is about 40A, so that with one charging the car can run for, say, three hours and cover a distance of60km or 37.5 miles,’ said the report.

The motor was placed over the front axles and connected to a spindle through gearing with a ratio of 1:3. The starting mechanism formed a hand wheel fixed to the steering wheel. The article described the vehicle as ’bearing considerable resemblance to a petrol car’.