History of the Electric Automobile: Battery-Only Powered Cars by Ernest H. Wakefield

Abstract

710 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE cheaply than and as speedily as rail systems. Accordingly, of God­ dard’s various suggestions, the most promising is variable user charges to encourage the use of the buses he ignores and to secure more effective use of the automobile. Similarly, Goddard ignores planes, the efficiency of which casts great doubt on his recommenda­ tions for linear intercity systems. The book is well written and reads easily. It could have done with more critical editing to deal with some factual errors that lead the reader to question Goddard’s familiarity with his subject. The DUR, the Detroit United Railway, is said to be the Detroit Urban Railway; the Lake Shore Electric, which ran between Cleveland and Toledo, is put in Michigan; the Chesapeake & Ohio’s stillborn streamliner, the Chessie, is said to have gone into service; and the Norfolk & Western is made a western line. The book has such a wide variety of policy recommendations that almost every reader will find some agreeable, but howlers like these should satisfy no one. George W. Hilton Mr. Hilton is professor emeritus of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has written extensively on policy issues in urban and intercity transporta­ tion and on the economic history of railroads, steamboats, and street railways. History of the Electric Automobile: Battery-Only Powered Cars. By Ernest H. Wakefield. Warrendale, Pa.: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1994. Pp. xxx+ 541; illustrations, tables, notes, glossary, appen­ dixes, bibliography, index. $49.00. Over the course of the past century, various entrepreneurs have attempted to build and market electric automobiles. By the outbreak of World War I, however, the internal-combustion engine was the undisputed “king of the road.” Then, in the 1960s, concerns about local air quality prompted some individuals and utilities to explore the possibility of reintroducing the electric car. The oil crisis of 1973 led the federal government to support further research on electrics in the interest of energy security. And in the 1980s the California Air Resources Board entered the fray by mandating that 2 percent of all new cars sold in California beginning in 1998 must be Zero Emissions Vehicles (i.e., electric). These developments have also sparked interest in the history of electric cars. Ernest Wakefield’s History of the Electric Automobile is one attempt to capture that history. Wakefield’s personal involvement with the réintroduction of electric vehicles spans several decades. In addition to having worked at a small engineering firm that produced several prototype electric vehicles, Wakefield also authored a 1977 handbook called The Consumer’s Electric Car. The title of Wakefield’s current work is somewhat misleading. This “history” is more accurately an “encyclopedia” of electric cars that TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 711 incorporates a memoir of the author’s own involvement with their development. Analysis of the historical relationship between electricand gasoline-powered automobiles is sprinkled throughout the text. But the basic argument is familiar: “The dominance of the internal combustion engine is associated with the energy in gasoline and the fuel’s relatively low cost” (p. 255). Although Wakefield’s data docu­ ment the importance of specific firms and designers in satisfying con­ sumer demands, in his view technology and the market tell us all we need to know to understand the historical evolution of the automo­ bile. Wakefield honors the clever and creative entrepreneurs who tried to build an electric car industry, but “the industry was destined to die” (p. 257). Wakefield’s chronology of the history of electric cars is neither welldefined nor well-defended over the course of the book. Chapter 9 suggests that 1895—1905 was the “golden age” for electrics. Yet many of the examples cited date from the period between 1910 and the outbreak of World War I. Wakefield misses the crucial point about the brief resurgence of interest in electrics around 1910: whereas vehicles built around the turn of the century were competing in an essentially virgin market, by 1910 the auto industry had become an accepted and growing part of American economic and cultural life, and the electric distribution system had also expanded. The electric car of 1910 was not competing directly...