Historic

Series hybrids were the next big thing 100 years ago: Are they any more likely today?
Bengt Halvorson May 19, 2019

The 1916 Owen Magnetic Tourer that crossed the Bonhams auction block last month was more than a beautiful snapshot from an obscure moment in American automotive history. As one of the technological wonders of its time, the Magnetic Tourer didn’t have any mechanical connection between its big 374-cubic-inch (6.1-liter) inline-6 engine and the drive wheels. And it could store energy through regenerative braking, or use its battery power to drive the vehicle for short distances. It was by today’s definition a series hybrid. The engine has no physical link to the wheels; it drives a...
1960 Henney Kilowatt electric car was a junction box of 20th century future
With the backing of utility companies and some leading engineers involved, the 1960 Henney Kilowatt could have been a turning point for electric cars.
Bengt Halvorson May 5, 2019
Automobile Driving Museum show offers electric-car history retrospective
The Automobile Driving Museum is exhibiting electric cars from the past five decades.
Stephen Edelstein May 27, 2016

Is this 1896 horseless carriage the world's very first hybrid car?
An 1896 Armstrong phaeton could be the world's first hybrid car.
Stephen Edelstein March 18, 2016
1917 Detroit Electric Vs 2014 BMW i3: A Century Of Electric Cars
What a difference a century makes, more or less. The 1917 Detroit Electric Model 68 in these photos was painstakingly restored over a period of years by owner Donald Davidson, who is only the car's third owner in 98 years. It's shown with Electric Auto Association board member Chris Neff's 2014 BMW...
John Voelcker September 18, 2015
First-Ever Porsche Turns Out To Be An Electric Car
"Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model," or P1, was the first car designed by Ferdinand Porsche.
Stephen Edelstein January 30, 2014
Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation Set Up To Preserve Electric-Car History
John Voelcker July 9, 2013

With more than 100,000 electric cars on U.S. roads--and thousands more added each month--advocates and historians are turning their attention to the last time cars with plugs rolled out of U.S. factories, almost 100 years ago. But as far as we know, there's no single museum or entity in the U.S. whose sole mission is to present the history of plug-in electric cars. That may be about to change, if a post in electric-vehicle forum Electrifying Times by collector and historian Roderick Wilde is any indication. In late May, Wilde wrote: In January I founded a nonprofit corporation, titled the...
Diesel Road Trip: Agency Rocks SxSW With 1979 Oldsmobile Coupe
Nothing like a lime green 34-year-old diesel car to wake you up the morning after you spring forward, is there? Two weeks ago, we wrote about the near-pristine 54,000-mile 1979 Oldsmobile 98 Coupe that popped up for sale on the delightful and quirky Bring A Trailer site. Now, BaT has published an...
John Voelcker March 11, 2013

Diesel History For Sale: 1979 Oldsmobile 98 Coupe, 54K Miles
Fans of diesel-engined cars really, really love their vehicles, and we have a lot of them on this site. So we're hoping that some Southern California diesel car fanatic will step up to the plate and buy this piece of diesel history. Found through the always entertaining Bring A Trailer site, this...
John Voelcker February 26, 2013
Vanished 1950s Electric Car: Pioneer By Nic-L-Silver Battery Co.
George Lippincott was the founder and president of Nic-L-Silver Battery Company, Santa Ana, California, which made a popular line of American car batteries in the 1950s. Inspired by fiberglass-bodied sports cars being developed in Southern California at the time, he considered building his own line...
John Voelcker April 13, 2012
1914 Detroit Electric: Pretty Spry For A Century Old (Video)
For decades, old electric cars--those built from the 1890s to 1930 or so, when the last remnants of the industry died out--were nothing more than oddities. Tall, imposing, mostly resembling closed horse carriages, they were stately but sidelined reminders of an entirely vanished way of propulsion...
John Voelcker June 20, 2011
(VIDEO): Ancestral Electric Cars: What Came Before the 2011 Leaf?
We all know about the latest electric cars to come from the likes of Ford, General Motors and Nissan. But while they may be the latest they are certainly not the first. In the first of a series of fun trips back in time, we’re looking at the ancestors of electric cars we see coming to market...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield March 22, 2011