Detroit Electric

Detroit Electric is the early electric that refused to die. The Anderson Electric Car Company built about 13,000 of them between 1907 and 1939, long after most rivals had vanished. The company advertised roughly 80 miles between charges, and one test ran 211.3 miles on a single charge. From 1911 to 1916 buyers could pay $600 extra for an Edison nickel-iron battery, and Clara Ford, wife of Henry Ford, drove Detroit Electrics from 1908. A top speed of around 20 mph, ordinary at first but slow by 1939, shows the trade-off that finally left it behind.