Electric cars won the first American automobile race

Contrary to popular belief, electric cars have a long history. They are the vehicles that won the first automobile race in the US.

In recent years, the development of electric vehicles is dominant for the field of motorsport. They won some historic races. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was the completion of the Pikes Peak hill climb. It was in record time by Romain Dumas in the electric race car Volkswagen I.D.R.

But hard-drive fans of electric vehicles and historians know that the races have been conquered by the power battery cluster for a long time. In fact, the first automobile race to be held in the United States on a mainstream race was won by an electric car on September 7, 1896.

The story

Before the 20th century began, a race was held to advertise car. t was a huge event at the time. More than 60,000 people gathered at Narragansett Trotting Park – a 1.6-kilometer horse race track. It was built at Cranston, Rhode Island outside Providence, to witness two electric cars challenging five gasoline-powered cars.

According to the data of History.com, the start of the race was slow. The crowd screaming an old saying, “Get a horse!” Soon, however, the electric model of The Riker Electric Vehicle Company took the lead.

At the end of the 5 laps, in which its fastest lap was 2 minutes 13 seconds, the Riker was the first car to finish the race with a total time of 15 minutes. The other electric vehicle, from Electric Carriage and Wagon Compan, came in second place and followed in third place was the gasoline engine from Duryea Motor Wagon Company.

The event ended wonderfully for Riker, who won $ 900 (about $ 27,000 today). This was something that immediately blossomed at Many cities across the United States. But as we all know, the success of electric cars at that time soon faded. It ended in just a few decades after Cadillac introduced its first electric starter on a commercial car in 1912.