In the collective imagination, electric cars are an extremely recent technology, but historically the electric engine arrived much before the combustion engine. The correct timeline is in fact this: invention of the electric motor, discovery of the first productive oil field, invention of the internal combustion engine.
- 11832, Robert Anderson invents the “Electric Carriage”
- 21835, Thomas Davenport creates the first electric motor
- 31840 – 1891 Rechargeable batteries and the first electric cars arrive
- 41853, two Italians create the first internal combustion engine
1832, Robert Anderson invents the “Electric Carriage”
The central years of the 19th century were crucial for the invention of a means of transport that did without animal traction and exploited electrical energy, a technology so revolutionary that it had literally “lit” the ingenuity of many individuals, eager to discover its uses and applications in various fields, including the transport of people.
The first testimony (dating back to the period between 1832 and 1839) relating to a rudimentary, and very limited, means of road transport (we cannot yet call it “car” according to the modern meaning of the term) concerns the “Electric Carriage” by the Scottish inventor Robert Anderson (inspired by the scale model designed by the Hungarian Benedictine physicist and priest Anyos István Jedlik in 1828).
The invention had important limitations, the first of which was the fact that batteries, which exploited oil to generate electricity (they were practically the ancestors “disposable” of modern fuel cells, i.e. the fuel cells used in hydrogen electric cars), could not be recharged.
The impossibility of recharging the batteries enormously limited the autonomy of the vehicle and therefore its practical usefulness in everyday life; at the same time, however, it was a first step on a new path, full of potential discoveries, which will not be long in coming.
1835, Thomas Davenport creates the first electric motor
Almost at the same time as Anderson, the American Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith by profession, created the first direct current electric motor, using two fixed electromagnets and a commutator to generate the rotary movement. Davenport’s invention essentially transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy, allowing electricity to be used in multiple applications. In this specific case, the American blacksmith was thinking of electric locomotives instead of steam ones.
Davenport managed to patent this engine only in 1837, after countless struggles with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), which certified the work of the American inventor with the generic definition “Improvements in Propulsion Machinery by Magnetism and Electromagnetism”.
1840 – 1891 Rechargeable batteries and the first electric cars arrive
The turning point occurred in 1840, when the French physicist Gaston Planté, after several attempts, discovered that lead and lead dioxide electrodes, if immersed in sulfuric acid, triggered a reversible electrochemical reaction, giving life to a rechargeable battery capable of providing a stable voltage of 2 volts over time. This is to all intents and purposes the first version of the lead acid battery present in every modern vehicle.
From there, the road to the development of electric vehicles was paved, and within a few years the first models began to circulate: in 1881 Gustave Trouvé crossed the streets of Paris with an electric tricycle.
In 1885 the Frenchman Jeantaud produced and sold electric cars with a range of 30 km and a speed of 20 km/h; in 1891 Count Giuseppe Carli of Castelnuovo Garfagnana and the engineer Francesco Boggio created the first Italian electric one.
There is also no shortage of car races, which lead to the first records: one of the most important is that established by the electric car La Jamais Contente (The Never Contented), the first car ever to exceed the speed of 100 km/h during a competition held in 1899.
1853, two Italians create the first internal combustion engine
The second half of the 19th century saw the coexistence of the two engines, exactly as happens today: the electric motor, powered by rechargeable batteries, and the internal combustion engine, powered by petrol, thanks to the discovery of the first oil deposits and the birth of refining companies, such as Standard Oil, founded in 1870.
Attention! Contrary to what is believed (and what we have written when talking about the history of the automobile), it was not Nikolaus Otto and Karl Benz who designed the first internal combustion engine, but the Italians Father Eugenio Barsanti and the engineer Felice Matteucci.
In fact, while the German patent of “Patent Motor Vehicle” (number 37435) was registered in 1886 at the Patent Office of the German Empire, the Italian invention was registered, through the precise description of the engine on an autograph document, at the offices of the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence in 1853!
The story of the two Italian inventors remained unknown for a very long time, due to the lack of an official Italian document (the Grand Duchy of Tuscany did not have a Patent Office).
Although the technological gap between Benz’s invention and the electric vehicles already in circulation was notable (looking only at cruising speed, the German Velociped reached a maximum of 16 km/h) and petrol was initially sold only in pharmacies (as a remedy for lice! It was only in 1913 that the first car filling station was created in Pittsburgh), within a few years the combustion engine left the electric alternative behind.
What marked the cornering of the electric motor for over a century, except for particular applications, were neither conspiracies against inventors of the time (like Nikola Tesla, but not only him), nor petrochemical companies, but a much more practical aspect: in a certain sense, in 1891 the electric motor had reached its maximum development, while the internal combustion engine could improve considerably.
Petrol, thanks to investments in the oil sector, had become extremely cheap, much more than the batteries available on the market, and this catalyzed the interest of various companies in the development of higher-performance internal combustion engines, capable of covering ever greater distances with a single liter of fuel.
The same could not be said for the autonomy of an electric car, still linked to the use of lead batteries which, although rechargeable, had a rather modest energy density.
We will have to wait for the arrival of lithium ion batteries (used in multiple applications, ranging from medical devices to our smartphones) for things to change, turning upside down again.
