Electric Vehicle Company was an American automobile holding company and early pioneering manufacturer of automobiles.

History

The Electric Vehicle Company was founded September 27, 1897 as a holding company of battery-powered electric vehicle manufacturers made up of several companies assembled by

Isaac Rice Isaac Leopold Rice (February 22, 1850 – November 2, 1915) was a German-born Jewish American businessman, investor, musicologist, author, and chess patron.

. Rice had acquired in May, 1897 another electric cab manufacturer, the Electric Carriage & Wagon Company (E.C.W.C.) in New York. Their vehicles were constructed by ''Henry G. Morris'' and ''Pedro G. Salom'', builders of the Electrobats, the first truly useful electric automobiles in the USA. E.V.W.C. pioneered a cab system that included service stations for quick change of battery sets, and repair work; vehicles were leased only, not sold. Twelve of these cabs were in use in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in January, 1897. After the merger, E.V.C. concentrated on building heavy but reliable electric cabs which were built in the E.C.W.C. workshops. The rental system was for a short time run by E.V.C. Between 1897 and 1899, there were several hundred E.V.C. vehicles built. The company was taken over in 1899 by a

syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...

around William C. Whitney,

Thomas Fortune Ryan Thomas Fortune Ryan (October 17, 1851 – November 23, 1928) was an American tobacco, insurance and transportation magnate. Although he lived in New York City for much of his adult career, Ryan was perhaps the greatest benefactor of the Roman Ca ...

Anthony N. Brady, and P. A. B. Widener, thus forming the so-called "Lead Cab Trust," which hoped to develop a monopoly by placing electric cabs on the streets of major American cities, starting with New York City,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Although by 1899, E.V.C. was the largest motor car manufacturer in the United States - a position lost to

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...

in 1901 - this policy failed soon, as it was even then not able to sell as many vehicles as necessary for the task. The firm actually made and sold about two thousand electric cars, but fell into hard times in 1900 after facing competition from gas-powered (that is, petroleum fuelled) cars and legal problems stemming from these monopolistic practices, as well as scandal surrounding the poor performance of its vehicles. Whitney brought in industrial leader

Albert Augustus Pope Albert Augustus Pope (May 20, 1843 – August 10, 1909) was a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in the Union Army. He was an importer, promoter, and manufacturer of bicycles, and a manufacturer of automobiles. Early life Pope was born on May 20, 18 ...

now, who brought the

Columbia Automobile Company Columbia was an American brand of automobiles produced by a group of companies in the United States. They included the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, the Electric Vehicle Company, and an entity of brief existence in 1899, ...

. The trust was reorganized as the parent company of several vehicle manufacturers, among them Columbia and the

Riker Electric Vehicle Company The Riker was a veteran and brass era electric car founded in 1898 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Designed by Andrew L. Riker, they were built in small numbers until the company was absorbed by the Electric Vehicle Company in 1901. History An ...

, which was acquired in 1902. Electric Vehicle's chief asset was now the holding of the Selden Patent which established a right to royalties from all manufacturers of

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

vehicles. While this was initially lucrative, it led inevitably to opposition from the other manufacturers and expensive lawsuits, which ended with bankruptcy in 1907. The patent was valid until 1913, but lost its worth as the appellation court reduced it to vehicles with Brayton engines, of which none was used in a motor vehicle.

Notes

References

* David A. Kirsch: ''The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History.'' Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ/ London 2000, * Ernest Henry Wakefield: ''History of the Electric Automobile; Battery-Only Powered Cars.'' edited by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). Warrendale PA 1970, * * * James J. Flink: ''America Adopts the Automobile - 1895–1910.'' Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970, * James J. Flink, ''The Automobile Age'' (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988). * G. N. Georgano (editor): ''Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present.'' 2nd edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973,

External links

The Selden Motor Wagon
Photos of the vehicle, plus articles about the gestation of the patent and the lengthy lawsuit which followed
secondchancegarage.com: ''The Columbia Car: Reliable, Simple to Operate and Ready for Action - Page 3: To The Electric Vehicle Trust''
(retrieved, 7 August 2014) *

'; Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904), Americana Review, 725 Dongan Ave., Scotia NY (USA); published, 1904, deckt auch Importe ab (English)
Encyclopædia Britannica: ''Hiram Percy Maxim''
(English) (retrieved, 7 August 2014)

(English) (retrieved, 4 January 2016) * ttp://www.kcstudio.com/colcharging.html kcstudio.com: ''Charging up the electric cabs''; Zeitungsberichte 1896–1898(English) (retrieved, 4 January 2016) {{Authority control Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1897 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1907 1897 establishments in New York City 1907 disestablishments in New York (state) Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Patent monetization companies of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in New York (state) Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City

History

See also

Notes

References

External links