First American Electric Car

At the age of 14 Andrew Riker built an electric motor in his parent's basement in New York City.  Riker later built the first electric vehicle in the United States, in the form of a battery powered tricycle.  It was called the Riker Electric.  A Riker electric tricycle beat a gasoline automobile built by Duryea in a race in 1896.  the Riker electric was built until 1900, when Riker switched to building gasoline powered automobiles.

Riker made electric trucks, and built a two person  racer which set the world land speed record in 1901 at 57.1 mph.  One of his vehicles set a speed record that endured for 10 years. Riker was hired by the Locomobile company to design a gasoline powered car for them, and switched his interest to gasoline engine automobiles.

 

Comments

[James Chapman]

Watched a very interesting review on the G Wiz electric car last night. Tim Lovejoy from Channel 5’s Fifth Gear took to the streets of London to see if the £7,000 G Wiz was a practical enough vehicle. He found it wasn’t much use for taking the kids to school as it was a little on the small side for the children in the back but was adequate enough to get him self and his golf clubs in, so not too bad I suppose.

It is reckoned that the £7,000 price tag for the car will pay for its self within 1 year due to the car being exempt from the congestion charge, road tax, and can be parked for free in central London. The top speed of the car is just 40 mph and can travel for 40 miles on a single charge. In my eyes this is perfected for anyone living in the central of London. p.s like the blog

[Albin Inigo]

i was just going to ask was this first american electric car built until 1900?

[Web]

It’s great that more people are focusing on making better environmental choices. Plus technology is making it more economical now, and that’s what people really notice. Wind energy, solar power, hybrids and zap EV’s, our choices are good. There are now electric cars being sold everyday, you just plug it into a regular power outlet. When people test drive them they say it’s far more fun to drive an EV.