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The departure of guests, must of them driving their own cars.
be sure, but in excellent order, the same
being his own earlier models taken in
trade for the later eighty to ninety mile
vehicles, and scarcely salable to-day for
the price of the tires. With a million like
them the industry would be bankrupt!
If the public really wanted that sort of
vehicle it could have it to-morrow. But
the demand simply does not exist. The
public insists on reserve mileage and a
fair speed, even though weight, tire cost,
and charging expense must be piled high
to secure them.
In view of the total lack of public interest
at present in the light utility electric,
the question whether the public's
taste may change ten years from now
seems rather academic. However, it
seems a safe prediction that if the car of
Doctor Steinmetz's vision becomes a reality
it will be only as a specialized type,
very useful to those who want that type,
but by no means elbowing other types off
the map in order to gain its place in the
sun. For those who want it will be the
city and suburban dwellers who can afford
it in addition to the gasolene touring car—
not in place of the latter.
As its up-keep and charging expense
will be small, the small electric can replace
the touring car for local use with real
economy. To be sure, the best opinion
places its probable cost at much nearer
eight hundred dollars than five hundred
dollars, since its chief elements of cost—
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copper, lead or nickel, hard rubber, and
tires—are irreducible regardless of quantity
manufacture. Nevertheless, the family
that can afford a fifteen-hundred-dollar
touring car will probably spend less,
rather than more, by adding an eight-hundred-dollar
electric.
Recent improvements in motors and
batteries will make the future small electric
somewhat faster than its early prototypes
; it will have the weather protection
which the other certainly lacked, and in
appearance it will be much less like a
buggy and more like a real car.
So it seems that we may see the woman's
problem actually solved, as regards that
class of families living in cities or suburbs
and able to spend a certain minimum on
their automobiles. True, thirty miles is
a very small radius when we reduce it still
further by bad roads and weather, but
still it is doubtless enough for the strictly
local uses we have described, and, with a
gasolene car available for longer runs, the
handicaps of the electric will not be felt.
Before leaving the subject, mention
should be made of a novel method of
combining a gasolene engine with electric
transmission, thereby eliminating both
the clutch and the usual gears. It is too
technical to describe here, and cars embodying
it are not yet on the market; but
it has the important features of weighing,
power for power, but little more than ordinary
gear transmission and of wasting