The Progress of Electric Automobiles.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 146

The Progress of Electric Automobiles.

that makers now claim their vehicles to fufil all the conditions of a satisfactory car Recently there has been quite a boom in electrical long-distance tests m France, and some very creditable performances have been recorded by the Kneger carriages — a type said to be fairly familiar among the many electrical cars in daily use m the West end of London. A two-seated vehicle, fitted with a 42-cell battery of La Societe Electnque dcs Metaux accumulators and a four-seated car with a 44-cell battery were put to the test. A distance of 120 miles, from Deanville to Pans, was covered by each of the cars without any recharging being necessary — a splendid record — that should encourage further efforts by experimenters with electric automobiles

Although electricity is the ideal motive power, the number of electrically propelled cars that have been imported into Australia is extremely small. Accumulators will not withstand the vibration of our roads, and even were the roads suitable, the small storage capacity of any electric car, combined with the fact that only an extremely limited number of centres for recharging are available, render electricity for practical use out of the question. Going abroad, however, we find that the elasticity and ease of control of the electrically propelled carriage, combined with its silence and freedom from smell and vibration, have from the first secured it many supporters, though in the early stages of its history its development received a considerable set-back, owing to injudicious attempts to force its utilisation in fields for which it was at the time clearly unsuited. In its own particular sphere the electric carriage has, nevertheless, made steady and encouraging headway, though it has received but small attention in comparison to the petrol car. As a purely town carriage with a limited range, it is an ideal vehicle offering the advantages of neatness, safety, and convenience. Since its development in this direction the numbers m use in London, Pans, New York, and other large cities are steadily increasing. More than any other type of self-propelled vehicle, the electric carriage lends itself to the housing and manipulation of larger numbers in a central depot, and there are abroad many companies that successfully cater for those of the fashionable world whe prefer to hire an electric vehicle rather than keep a carriage of their own. The success of the electric carriage upon finding its proper sphere was due not to fashion or favour, but to its essentially practical advantages. It is as nearly proof against mishap as any machine can be. Its manipulation can be readily understood in a few lessons, by anyone without mechanical knowledge or training. There is, moreover, almost entire freedom from roadside stoppage or breakdown. Little or no difficulty arises from power exhaustion when limitations of the accumulators are understood and recognised. With an effective range of from 25 to 35 miles upon one charge, and with interchangeable batteries, a carriage may run all day, if arrangements are made for its return to a depot to take up a new battery, an operation which occupies from two to three minutes. There are, too, many who believe in the possibility of widening the scope of the electric carriage, although generally it is looked upon as a purely town vehicle. This is due mainly to the mistaken impression that very little real progress has been made m storage batteries during the past few years. Nothing having been discovered to replace the lead accumulator, the electric carriage is regarded as still marking time in the way it did when makers found that they could not get their vehicles to cover more than sixty miles at the most on a single charge. This was deemed the best the electric carriage was capable of doing with the lead accumulator. Of late, however, so much improvement has taken place in the construction of accumulators