Untitled - ev-bg.com

Chapter 3: Electric Vehicle History 39Peugeot (France, 1894), and Bremer (England, 18941) were primitive engineeringaccomplishments in search of a marketing niche, while contemporary enclosed-bodyelectrics, targeted at the elite urban carriage trade, sold briskly at $5,000 a copy.This changed quickly, perhaps due to the inspiration of the Chicago Times-HeraldThanksgiving Day race of 1895–6, an event held “with the desire to promote, encourage,stimulate invention, development and perfection and general adoption of the motorvehicle in the United States.” Won by Frank Duryea, driving a Duryea Brothers motorwagon, it brought instant fame to the brothers but, more importantly, brought most ofthe United States automotive pioneers together for the first time. Only three years later,more than 200 companies had been organized to manufacture motorcars.Simultaneously, when internal combustion–powered vehicles were still decadesaway from dominance, discovery of the Los Angeles field in the 1890s, the “Spindletop”field near Beaumont, Texas in January 1901, and the Oklahoma fields of the early 1900ssaw boom and bust times that priced a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil (typically from 15 to20 percent recoverable as gasoline) as low as three cents a barrel. While DC and ACelectrical distribution systems guaranteed that electric lighting would replace thekerosene lamp, cheap domestic oil, which kept gasoline prices between two and tencents a gallon between 1890 and 1910, guaranteed the success of internal combustionvehicles.Like Rockefeller with oil, Henry Ford was the individual who was in the right place(Detroit) at the right time (October 1908) with the right idea (Model T Ford) at the rightprice ($850 FOB Detroit). Ford had attended neither the Chicago Times-Herald race northe earlier World’s Columbian Exposition of Chicago that opened May 1, 1893, butwritten information derived from these events doubtless inspired his first creation—the1896 Quadricycle 7. By 1908, Henry Ford had produced numerous designs. Hand-built1899 and 1901 models followed the 1896 Quadricycle; Ford Motor Company models A,B, C, F, N, R, S, and K preceded the T; and Ford had won races with his Grosse Pointracer of 1901 and famous “999” Barney Oldfield racer of 1902. But it was the innovationof the mass-produced, one-color-fits-all 1909 Model T at the $850 price that put theinternal combustion vehicle on the map. The four-cylinder, 20-hp, 1,200-lb. 1909 ModelT’s instant success created an enormous demand that lasted nearly 19 years; more than15,000,000 were manufactured until production ceased in May 1927. By producingnearly the same model, manufacturing economies of scale enabled the price to bedropped year after year until its all-time low of $290 in December 1924. In addition tolow purchase price, the Model T’s success was also due to its operating economy. Itstwo forward/one reverse speed planetary transmission and 30-inch wheels (withrecommended tire pressures of 60 psi) drove the Model T’s engine at 1,000 rpm at 25mph and 1,800 rpm at 45 mph, producing a typical gas mileage of 20 miles per gallonand up.Simultaneously, integration (along with the 1905 political problems in Russia) hadconsolidated the world oil market in the hands of two companies by 1907: Standard Oiland Royal Dutch/Shell. But by 1911, the investigation of Standard Oil launched bypresident Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 resulted in the United States federal court findingStandard Oil guilty of antitrust violations and ordering its breakup into the companieswe recognize today: Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), Standard Oil of New York(Mobil), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio-BP/America), Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco), Continental Oil (Conoco), and Atlantic(ARCO/Sun). While this breakup initially led to a decade of peaceful coexistence among