Commercial Motor Vehicle Company

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Commercial Motor Vehicle Company
legal form Company
founding 1903
resolution 1905
Seat Detroit , Michigan , USA
Branch Motor vehicles

Commercial Motor Vehicle Company was an American manufacturer of motor vehicles , a pioneer of all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering in commercial vehicles, of which trucks with a payload of up to 10 tn. sh. (approx. 9.1 tons) and buses for up to 50 passengers were produced. The company mainly relied on battery-electric drives , with electric motors that acted directly on one wheel each. In 1905 a truck and a bus were equipped with gasoline-electric drives to improve their range .

Company history

The company was based in Detroit , Michigan . In 1903 the production of automobiles began, with the focus from 1904 on commercial vehicles . The brand name was Commercial Electric for the only passenger car and Quadray for commercial vehicles. Mainly electrically powered vehicles were offered, but in 1905 a chassis with gasoline-electric drive was also presented. It was equally suitable for trucks and buses. The company touted itself as manufacturers of heavy trucks, buses and interurban cars . The latter meant buses with a greater range than the usual range at the time.

Production ended in 1905; the construction of the car was possibly stopped as early as 1904.

vehicles

Passenger cars

The only car model was called a business man's carriage . A small electric motor powered the electric car . It made 0.75 hp . This made a top speed of 22 km / h possible. The battery consisted of ten cells. The range was given as 64 km. The only body shape was an open runabout . The curb weight was given as around 227 kg.

Commercial vehicles and buses

In your commercial vehicles sat Commercial Motor Vehicle Company of Electric - wheel motors in each of the wooden artillery wheels . This resulted in an early form of all-wheel drive , the oldest documented applications of which were the American Hub Electric (1899) and the Austrian Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus (1900). The Caffrey Steam was introduced as early as 1895 , a steam car with a small steam engine in each wheel hub. The Commercial Motor Vehicle Company used wooden artillery wheels .

The smaller of the two purely electrically powered commercial vehicles described was a truck with this all-wheel drive. The four wheel hub motors developed 2½ HP each. They were powered by a 40 cell battery. The truck carried a payload of up to 6¼ t. sh. (approx. 4.8 tons), a version was also available as a bus for 40 passengers.

The heaviest vehicle in the delivery program was a truck introduced in 1904 with a payload of 9 to 10 tn. sh. (approx. 8–9 tons), wheel hub all-wheel drive with 3½ to 4 hp per wheel and also with all-wheel steering . Its battery had 80 cells .; the maximum speed was 6 to 8 mph (about 10 to 13 km / h). The vehicle was available as a flatbed or box van and it can be assumed that it also served as the basis for the aforementioned 50-seater bus.

The third commercial vehicle was a petrol-electric powered bus. A 25 HP four-cylinder engine of unknown origin was used to generate the electricity for the four wheel hub motors with 2½ HP each. It is not known how many passengers the bus was designed for, 40 as with the purely electrically operated bus is a realistic assumption. The vehicle, known as the Interurban Car , was intended to enable regular traffic between towns that were beyond the range of electric vehicles possible at the time, and was also suitable for tourist purposes.

Model overview

Only incomplete information is available. The overview below has been compiled from various sources.

Construction time
occupied for		 brand model Payload
as a truck		 Seats
as a bus		 drive power Batteries variants Remarks
approx. 1903-1904 Commercial
Electric		 Business man’s
carriage		 - - Electric
 0.75 hp 10 cells Runabout The manufacturer's only passenger car
approx. 1903-1905 Quadray 6¼ tn 4.8 t 40 Electric
wheel hub drive all- wheel
drive 		4 × 2.5 hp 40 cells Trucks or  omnibuses
approx. 1904–1905 Quadray 10 tn 9.0 t
10.0 t		 50 Electric
wheel hub
drive all- wheel drive		 4 × 3.5 hp 80 cells Flatbed box van or omnibus All-wheel steering
approx. 1903-1905 Quadray Interurban Car - Petrol-electric
wheel hub
drive all- wheel drive		 4 × 2.5 hp - omnibus Petrol generator 25 HP; Overland and excursion bus

Remarks

  1. ↑ This is a conclusion that the automotive literature only lists the Commercial Motor Vehicle Company (no entry for Quadray) and the commercial vehicle literature only describes the Quadray brand .

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 367 (English).
  • George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. ; MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 1979; ISBN 0-87341-024-6 .
  • Albert Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996, ISBN 0-87341-368-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 367 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. 1996, p. 319.
  3. ↑ a b c d Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 505.
  4. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 246 (English).