Jun 19
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this. A mobile EV charging station from 1901, charging a Columbia Electric. There’s nothing new under the sun. I wonder how long the portable station took to charge.
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Reply Replies (18)
· Jun 19
Another interesting Columbia Electric taxi. I like the closet doors that close in front of the passengers’ legs. That’ll boost safety when you’re the first thing to hit that oncoming horse and carriage.
· Jun 19
I was reading in a book about the Selden patent that the taxi companies who were using Columbia Electrics had charged batteries on hand which were swapped in as necessary.
Apparently cabs would only need to come in for fresh batteries a couple times a day.
Apparently cabs would only need to come in for fresh batteries a couple times a day.
· Jun 19
Interesting. I would have expected taxis to be draining the batteries faster than that. Swapping out the batteries would seem to make more sense to me than the portable station. Better to have the cars out making money than sitting there charging. Still, I’d like to see the workings of that portable station. I would assume it’s just a large gasoline generator.
· Jun 19
China has a battery swapping system that swaps the taxi batteries in 5 minutes. Interesting concept but not applicable to the cars like a Tesla that are built around the battery.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250506-are-chinas-swap-stations-the-future-of-electric-cars
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250506-are-chinas-swap-stations-the-future-of-electric-cars
· Jun 19
Now that is cool! The arc of technology is very interesting. 20 years ago you could buy a vintage electric car fairly cheap. Then Tesla came along and in the last 10 years the prices of exploded. Mark Hyman saw this coming and bought something like 50 electric cars years ago. You gradually see them in his inventory.
· Jun 19
This Detroit Electric came out of the Tupelo Museum auction and built in the 1930s. Only one I have ever seen.
· Jun 19
Walker Electric truck. Amazon isn’t as far ahead as they think with their electric delivery trucks. Though the front end of both look very similar.
· Jun 19
That is fantastic and 10x better looking than the bezosmobiles I see. More people need to give Elon credit for making electric cars cool. Before him they were embarrassing to be seen with. Now everybody (except Amazon I guess) makes a cool looking electric vehicle.
· Jun 19
"Torpedo" racecar. Typed on back: "The Baker electric Torpedo. Mr. Baker helped into position by Henry Ford and Thos. A. Edison for the race at Staten Island. May 30, 1902, before the tragic accident."
· Jun 19
Here's an original photo of the Baker Electric Torpedo Kid in action on Daytona Beach, 1908.
· Jun 19
Great photo! I can't find any info on this car or attempt in the newspaper archive. It must not have got a lot of play.
· Jun 21
Camille Jenatzy actually topped 65 mph in this thing in 1900 setting a land speed record.
· Jun 19
Behold the coolest electric vehicle have ever seen in person. This is from the Stahl's museum and they displayed it at Pebble back in 2001.
· Jun 19
For obvious reasons, this is the electric car that I need to save space in my garage for.
· Jun 19
That is a crazy cool body. I have never heard of a "hupp-yeats".
· Jun 20
The Hupp-Yeats was part of Bobby Hupp’s other ventures with R.C.H. Corporation after leaving Hupmobile. Incredibly rare.
· Jun 19
On a related note, I have correspondence from "Fitch Electric Garage" which specialized in servicing electric cars.
· Sep 24
What a great topic!! Thank all of you that contributed.