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> The R & D would have started much further away from a usable product. Maybe we would have got electric cars earlier, but not as early as the 60s or 70s. Elec
by bryanlarsen 2y ago
> The R & D would have started much further away from a usable product. Maybe we would have got electric cars earlier, but not as early as the 60s or 70s.
Electric cars were a usable product in 1910, superior in most cases to the alternative of a horse and buggy. If they hadn't been outcompeted by gasoline cars they would have gotten better continuously and would never been unusable or inviable.
- WorldMaker 2y agoIt's interesting too looking back on the early politics of the electric car versus the gas car. The electric car was the "lady's car" because it was less messy, more reliable, easier to use, quieter, more efficient (higher range in some early cases). The gas car was the "man's car" because it was louder, harder to start, harder to maintain, needed a fuel that was harder to acquire, was overall less reliable. There's an interesting alternate history tale to be told if the Ford Motor Company had been lead instead of by Henry Ford by his wife Clara Bryant Ford (who was a big proponent for electric cars, in addition to being an interesting suffragette).
- graemep 2y agoMy wording was poor, what I meant was not competitive with petrol cars as early as the 60s or 70s.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoI'm not sure what your point is, then. We already know what happens when gasoline cars are able to compete freely against electric cars. The speculation is what would have happened if gasoline cars weren't allowed to compete freely, either due to an act of God or an act of legislature.