"ELECTRICS" AND THEIR FUTURE

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 76, 27 September 1916, Page 10

"ELECTRICS" AND THEIR FUTURE

A LESSON FROM THE PETROL SHORTAGE.

This war is now finding out the weak spots in the armour of the motor industry (says The Motor). We are committed to the internal-combustion engine ; all our money has been "banked" on it, so to speak. Nov; that we are face to face with a calamity, with a hope, but no definite assurance, that itmay be only temporary, we have no alternative prime mover that we can turn to. Steam has been offered, but turned down in favour of an engine that uses a fuel which is, and always must be, a failing quantity when the long view is taken. Electric power is undeveloped, so far as this country is concerned, and even if we could turn to America to supply us in this direction in any other circumstances, in those which face us it does not help us at all, since imports are prohibited. The war conditions, as they exist at present, and as they must be expected to continue for some time, prevent any development here in the way of electric power as applied to motor vehicles; yet, it seems to us, it is in this direction that the efforts of constructors must turn in the near future. All the eggs must never again bo placed in one internal-combustion basket. We' are as confident as ever we were that the electrically-propelled vehicle must eventually receive that consideration which is its due. It is obvious that if serious efforts had been made in this country to develop the electric road vehicle as -an alternative to the inter-nal-combustion engined car, our position to-day would have been much less serious than it is, dependent as we are upon a vehicle that relies upon a fuel the use of which is now being so scri- ' ously restricted. We shall learn much from our present troubles, and .we forecast that one of the lessons that will teach us most is the one that points to the folly of placing entire reliance upon one, and only one, type of engine. The Motor has insistently pointed to the danger of being dependent only upon imported fuel. Henceforth we must guard against the danger of being solely reliant upon ono type of motor. We have hitherto urged the importance of an alternative home-produced fuel; we must be prepared in future with an alternative prime mover as well, and a typo of vehicle suitable for its use.