https://www.ozervnews.com

There is a new motoring museum in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It opened today so naturally we went for a look.
Quite a few interesting vehicles, mostly of US manufacture, and some European as well. There is a restaurant and cafe/bar on-site if the other half gets too bored.
I thought it was well worth the trip and would go again.
Found this pic on the wall. I thought it may be interst to those that thought electric cars were new to the world.

Apparently in the early days, it was touch & go if we would all be driving petrol or electric cars...
It seems petrol won because of the weight & range problems of the (then) current technology of lead/acid batteries.
If they’d had lithium then, maybe the story would have ended differently.

Looks interesting David, I personally like the Flintstones car, no tech stuff.

When I was a kid of around 6 or 7 the local grocer delivered groceries in an electric vehicle similar to that.

George

Yeah, there is one like that living around here ...Maffra I think .....often at car/vehicle shows .....
Cheers

Jay Leno has a fully restored Baker electric https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/auto ... BAKER.html & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnjMdzGusc
They originally had the Edison alkaline battery cells but some opted for the lead acid technology, partly because they were cheaper for the initial purposes and the manufacturers made B/S claims about how long the lead acid batteries would last .... sound familiar?????? Some of those early Edison cells are still in service today, but mostly as a nostalgic thing rather than as a practical house battery set up.
If it wasn't for the pressure applied by the petrol companies, much like today, we would never have seen the petrol powered motor vehicle out side of the collectors shows and museums ..... The fuel industry has a lot to answer for but no doubt they will never be questioned about it ... including buying the patent for the lithium ferrous and other chemical compound battery technology and then shelving it .... If it wasn't for the Chinese having no respect for patents, we probably would have electric cars today

T1 Terry

T1 Terry wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:19 pm ... including buying the patent for the lithium ferrous and other chemical compound battery technology and then shelving it .... If it wasn't for the Chinese having no respect for patents, we probably would have electric cars today

More information please??

Jim

Grandad wrote: ↑Sun Oct 04, 2020 9:45 am

T1 Terry wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:19 pm ... including buying the patent for the lithium ferrous and other chemical compound battery technology and then shelving it .... If it wasn't for the Chinese having no respect for patents, we probably would have electric cars today

More information please??

Jim

Here is a news paper article from 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... on-patents

Worth watching the doco "Who killed the electric car" a tad dated but still interesting.
I can do some further hunting back through various forums to find the specific links that tie the US professor's discovery of rechargeable LiFeP04 lithium ion batteries, his excitement about the oil companies investing big $$ in buying the patent with the promise of heavy investment in further research and then the realisation that they only wanted to bury it.
Stanley Whittingham was a very early inverter/designer of the rechargeable lithium battery cell, unfortunately he worked for ExxonMobil at the time and after an early cell chemistry showed great promise it short circuited and caught fire .... this was a good enough reason for the oil company to shelve all the research and because Stanley worked for Exxon at the time, they owned all the research.

T1 Terry

Thank you, Terry.

Jim