Is the Future "Electric" ?
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Battery-electrics are Gaining Ground—We Investigate the Present Position and Point to Lines Along which Further Development may he Expected and Designers Should Work
0 F the three main original sources of motive power for independently self-propelled road vehicles, internal-combustion, steam and electric%ity, the first has prospered and the second has gradualiy lapsed, whilst the third, after an extended series of ups and downs, has gained much ground and is now entering a period of popularity that there is reason to believe will endure.
Among the several factors that have contributed to the present state of affairs, and will continue to do so, may be included the movement afoot towards the elimination of the horse from the streets of towns, the rigid limiting of drivers' hours of work, and a consequence of the institution of the present licensing system. The last-named has promoted the operation of vehicles under C licences, and the tendency seems likely to increase. It is for certain spheres of this class that the electric is particularly well adapted.
With regard to the second factor named, it is obvious that a driver, who may work a specified number of hours and no more, should be out and away in the mornings with the least possible delay, and should have a minimum of operations to perform after his rounds are completed. On the battery-electric he has no tank to fill, no oil-level to,.check and no engiir to warm up, nor has he a horse to harness, feed and groom. All he has to do is to pull out or put in a plug, take on board his load and drive away.
Roundsman Qualifications.
Another point is that the driver, in numerous cases —the distribution of milk and other commodities, laundry work and so forth—is required to be a salesman. Indeed, his qualifications in this direction come
before those he possesses in the other. a Salesmen are, commonly, not particularly mechanically minded, and frequently lack appreciation of the finer points of driving and treatment of mechanisms; accordingly, simplicity. is of paramount importance. Moreover, fatigue markedly affects salesmanship. A man loses his selling ability as he tires, therefore it is desirable that the need for physical exertion should be minimized, that he should be relieved of as much anxiety as possible, and that he should not be subjected to the wearing influences of noise and vibration.
Considered from the personal and operating aspects, therefore, the battery-electric has, fundamentally, many attractions. It behoves manufacturers and designers to make the most of their special advantages.
On the maintenance side, the chief difficulty that has to be surmounted is this. The majority of operators runs mixed fleets, including, probably, petrol and oil machines, also, as likely as not, horsed vehicles. Repair staffs are in the main composed of men who are accustomed to looking after these types and are liable to fight shy of the electric. In the case of the bigger concerns, an electrician also is probably employed, or one man is specially detailed to attend to the needs of batteries, controllers, commutators, etc. To begin with, a fleet is operated from a centre. Later, as business grows, depots are established in a•
circle around ,headquarters. These are looked. after from the main garage, to which the vehicles never go except for general overhauls at long intervals.
Naturally, the depot organization will be less qualified to look after the vehicles than that at headquarters, so the maintenance problems are little if any easier to solve. These matters are practical facts, and must be faced by battery-electric makers. Simple to maintain as the battery-electric is, in order to overcome this difficulty maintenance should be made even easier.
Specialized work, such as bakery delivery, milk distribution, etc., calls for special bodywork. In building such bodies there is a tendency to forget the existence of the batteries. This fact must also be accepted, and provision should be made for easy topping up, in spite of hampering floorboards, etc.
More harm than good has probably been done to the battery-electric industry by making exaggerated claims. It must be recognized and admitted that the electric vehicle has definite limitations. Broadly, with a maximum of eight stops per mile, the daily mileage should not exceed 35.
As the number of halts increases, towards the extreme where a call is made at every house in a densely populated district, the daily vehicle-mileage drops, irrespective of the type of machine employed.
Mileage per charge, or, in the case of a petrol vehicle, per gallon, falls to a relatively low figure in such cases, because work is continually being done in accelerating the vehicle. Ultimate speed, also, becomes of minor significance, but acceleration of importance.
The Appropriate Sphere.
Thus, one may conclude that the suitable vehicle for outlying or sparsely populated districts is the petrol • van; for shorter-range service and more frequent stops the orthodox electric vehicle, manned by one or two persons according to the number of calls per mile and the length of walk entailed by each, and for literally (or nearly so) house-to-house collection and delivery wbrk, the pedestrian-controlled electric "pram."
If the horse comes into the picture at all, its claims are based on slender grounds. Sentiment is, perhaps, the strongest; the ability of the animal to move, unattended from one stopping place to the next, is a much-overrated asset ; it may have some slight publicity value, and, in respect of reliability and low cost, its superiority to the electric is doubtful.
On the other hand its clattering hoofs create a disturbance in the early mornings, it is unhygienic, and, in certain new residential estates, the horse is, we believe, actually forbidden by localregulations.
There are numerous other arguments for the electric, Fiat these are mostly well known. Our -object, on this occasion, has been to point to the practical obstacles in order that manufacturers may concentrate on the hest lines for combating them.