La Cuadra

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Compañía General Española de Coches Automóviles Emilio de la Cuadra SC
legal form Sociedad en comandita
founding 1898
resolution 1901
Reason for dissolution Financial problems
Seat Barcelona , Spain
management Emilio de la Cuadra, Carlos Vellino
Branch Automobile manufacturer

La Cuadra was a Spanish company in the automotive industry.

Company history

In 1898 the Spanish admiral Emilio de la Cuadra and the engineer Carlos Vellino founded the company in Barcelona . The company's aim was to develop and market automobiles. The company was the first automobile factory in Spain (according to the register from 1899). At the turn of the century, the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt also worked for the Spanish entrepreneur de la Cuadra in the then widespread electric vehicle industry. Birkigt developed combustion engines and braking systems, Vellino the electric motors , accumulators and drive technology, and the body was designed by Domingo Tamaró. In 1901 Juan Jaime Castro took over the company and founded the company J. Castro Sociedad en Comandita . This later became Hispano-Suiza .

vehicles

La Cuadra electric car, ca.1899
Omnibus from La Cuadra, ca.1899

Electric cars

In 1899 the first Spanish automobile was built in Barcelona under the name “La Cuadra” , but it was unsuccessful.

First model series: “La Cuadra 1” looked like a carriage , had two seats and had a 3 kW electric motor.

Hybrid drive

Another version was built with an additional 5 HP internal combustion engine that powered a dynamo and could charge the vehicle's batteries. La Cuadra built one of the first hybrid drives in the world during these years .

At the end of 1899, vehicles with a two - cylinder four-stroke internal combustion engine , a displacement of 1100 cm³ and an output of 4  hp were also built. It was registered in Soria in 1900 on Don Javier Olozábel Ramey and was marked SO-1. Another vehicle was registered in Lleida with the registration number L-1.

Version 2 followed; “La Cuadra 2” had two electric motors and a 25 HP internal combustion engine.

Electric truck and electric bus

A 5-ton truck powered by two 12 kW electric motors and a 20-seater battery bus were also built at that time. All vehicles were operated with 110-volt batteries of 450 Ah each.

Technical data of the bus: length 5.5 meters, width 2.2 meters, height 3 meters, maximum speed 18 km / h.

A bus was bought by the city of Barcelona in 1900 and was used in regular service there. The practical difficulties, the short range of around 35 kilometers and the weight of the batteries quickly led to the discontinuation of the new means of transport.

Since the handling and procurement of the accumulators was a problem at this time, Carlos Vellino founded his own accumulator production. At the same time worked in Austria at the company Lohner , the young in Vienna Ferdinand Porsche also but on a scooter with wheel hub motor . In 1902, the Tribelhorn company in Switzerland began building electric vehicles for post and hotel vehicles with La Cuadra batteries.

Gasoline cars

Birkigt developed two models with gasoline engines. The 4½ HP had a single cylinder engine , the 7½ HP had a two-cylinder engine with 1101 cm³ displacement. Work began on six vehicles, but only two vehicles were completed, one of which still exists today.

literature

  • Source electric motors: Eco-Vehículos Nº10; EcoAuto N ° 1; Vehículos Alternativos Ecológicos Nº5 y 7; Hispano-Suiza / Pegaso, un siglo de camiones y autobuses.
  • George Nick Georgano : The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile, Volume 2 G – O. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 (English)
  • David Burgess Wise: The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles. Greenwich Editions, 2004, ISBN 0-86288-258-3 (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Emilio La Cuadra. Vehiculos La Cuadra ( Memento from September 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile
  3. ^ The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles