Detroit Electric Car Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anderson Carriage Company (1884-1910)
Anderson Electric Car Company (1911-1918)
Detroit Electric Car Company (1919-1941)
legal form Company
founding 1884
resolution 1941
Seat Detroit , Michigan , USA
Branch Automobiles

EV Opera Car, model 68/17 B, Detroit Electric, Michigan (USA), year of construction 1909, construction period 1907–1930, 55 km / h, 4-speed DC motor, 39 kW, lead-acid battery: 94 volts, capacity: 180 Ah, 42 cells in series, power transmission directly to the rear axle
Thomas Edison and a 1917 Detroit Electric, Model 47, ( National Museum of American History )
Detroit Electric Brougham from 1915
Detroit Electric from 1916 in the Autoworld Museum , Brussels
Advert from 1920
Detroit Electric charging

Detroit Electric Car Company , previously the Anderson Carriage Company and Anderson Electric Car Company , was an American automobile manufacturer . The brand name was Detroit Electric .

From the 2000s onwards, other companies used the same brand name.

history

Horse-drawn carriage from 1884

William C. Anderson founded the Anderson Carriage Company in Port Huron , Michigan in 1884 . He manufactured horse carts and horse-drawn carriages until 1911. In 1885 he relocated the company headquarters to Detroit , also in Michigan.

Electric cars from 1907

After preparations in 1906, the production of electric cars began in 1907. The first car was delivered on September 30, 1907, and nine more were built by the end of the year. The Model C was a two-seater coupe , the Model D was the four-seater Brougham and in 1908 the Model L followed as a roadster . The company's best-selling model, however, was a single-seated horse-drawn carriage that sold for $ 25, while the Brougham electric car was $ 2,500.

In 1909, Anderson bought 92% of the shares in Elwell-Parker Electric Co. and thus secured the exclusive rights to the electric motor.

In 1911 the name was changed to Anderson Electric Car Company .

The cars were powered by lead-acid batteries . An Edison nickel-iron accumulator could be purchased for an additional $ 600 between 1911 and 1916 .

In advertising, the range on one battery charge was stated as 80 miles (130 km), but in tests, ranges of up to 211.3 miles (340.1 km) were achieved on one charge. The cars initially reached a top speed of around 20 miles / h (32 km / h), which was considered sufficient for city traffic.

Around 1916, according to a source, there were also hybrid vehicles with a 96 V electric motor, fed by 8 batteries, and an additional 3 HP petrol engine. These vehicles achieved a range of 180 km at 40 km / h and a weight of 1420 kg. However, other sources do not name hybrid vehicles.

The Anderson Electric Car Company was the first to use curved glass for the windshield , which was difficult and expensive to manufacture at the time.

Success in the 1910s

Production peaked in the 1910s with 1,000 to 2,000 cars a year.

Towards the end of the electric vehicle decade, heralded by the advancement of internal combustion engines, the high prices of gasoline during World War I helped electric cars.

In 1919 the company name was changed to the Detroit Electric Car Company when car manufacturing was separated from horse-drawn carriage manufacturing, which became part of Murray Body, and the Elwell-Parker motor business.

When internal combustion engines gained the upper hand in the 1920s, Detroit Electric's auto sales declined, but the company stayed in business until the Great Depression of 1929.

From 1910 to 1916 electric trucks were also manufactured.

Last years until 1939/41

The company went bankrupt but was bought and produced a small number of cars to order for several years. The last Detroit Electric was completed on February 23, 1939. ,

Detroit Electric was dissolved in 1941 . A total of 12,348 cars and 535 trucks were produced. Other sources quote between 35,000 and 37,000 vehicles.

Prominent owners

Known Detroit Electric car owners included Thomas Edison , Charles Proteus Steinmetz, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , who drove the Model 46 Roadster. Clara Ford, Henry Ford's wife , was driving a Detroit Electric from 1908 when Henry bought her a Model C Coupe with an additional child seat. Her third car was a 1914 Model 47 Brougham. Ford executives Henry Couzens and Harold Wills (later founders of the Wills Sainte Claire brand ) and the heads of major automotive companies such as Henry Joy ( Packard ), Wilfred Leland ( Cadillac , Lincoln ), George Dunham ( Chalmers ), Walter Drake ( Hupmobile ), Frank Duryea ( Duryea and Stevens-Duryea ) and Howard Marmon ( Marmon ).

In addition, the comic figure Dorette Duck , the grandmother of Donald Duck Comics, also drives a Detroit Electric. Detroit Electric cars can be viewed in a number of museums including B. in the Belgian Autoworld Museum in Brussels , in the Museum Autovision in Altlußheim , in the Car Museum Melle in Melle and in the Technik Museum Speyer .

An overview of US car brands starting with Detroit

brand Manufacturer Marketing start End of marketing Location, state
Detroit Detroit Automobile Company 1899 1901 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Wheeler Manufacturing Company 1904 1904 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Detroit Motor Chassis Company 1912 1912 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Detroit Motor Wagon Company 1912 1912 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Detroit Cyclecar Company 1913 1914 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Detroit Chassis Company 1915 1917 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Electric Detroit Electric Car Company 1907 1939 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Taxicab Detroit Taxicab & Transfer Company 1914 1915 Detroit, Michigan
Detroit-Dearborn Detroit-Dearborn Motor Car Company 1909 1910 Dearborn, Michigan

2000s

Detroit Electric SP01 (2015)

In 2007 the brand name was acquired by the Jinhua Youngman Vehicle Co. Ltd. Bought. The Detroit Electric e63 was created, which was developed together with Lotus and Proton.

In 2008 Albert Lam, a former CEO of the Lotus Engineering Group and Executive Director of Lotus Cars of England, bought the brand. In 2013 the sports car Detroit Electric SP.01 was presented.

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. 444-449 (English).
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America , SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA (2005), ISBN 0-7680-1431-X (English)

Web links

Commons : Detroit Electric Car Company  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d http://www.schoene-aktien.de/detroit_alte_aktien.html
  2. ^ A b c d George Nick Georgano (editor-in-chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 430. (English)
  3. ^ Geneva Motor Show 2010
  4. ↑ a b Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter Detroit Electric.
  5. ↑ 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. 444-449 (English).
  6. ^ Georgano, GN Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930 . (London: Grange-Universal, 1985).
  7. ^ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels , p. 367
  8. ^ Cars in Duckburg
  9. ↑ 100 Years in the Making ( Memento from May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ https://www.heise.de/autos/artikel/Detroit-Electric-elektrisiert-Proton-449197.html
  11. ↑ see also list of electric car prototypes
  12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pluginamerica.org
  13. ↑ http://www.elektroautos.co.at/detroit-electric-e46-e63-proton-226
  14. ↑ Detroit Electric: 10 things to know about the new electric vehicle company (MLive.com, March 20, 2013)
  15. ↑ THE SP: 01 Meet the world's fastest pure-electric production car. ( Memento from April 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ http://www.golem.de/news/detroit-electric-sp01-neuer-elektrosportwagen-unter-us-traditionsmarke-1304-98532.html
  17. ↑ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/detroit-electric-unveils-sp01----the-new-benchmark-for-electric-vehicle-performance-and-handling-201353491.html