Identifier: electricautomobi00wood (find matches)
Title: Electric automobile its construction care and operation
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Woods, C. E. (Clinton Edgar)
Subjects: Automobiles
Publisher: Chicago New York, H. S. Stone & co.
Contributing Library: Rutgers University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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newould not exceed twenty per cent, and thebattery is about twenty per cent of the costof the complete vehicle. The only possibleway that the cost of production of thesevehicles can be reduced is by a well-disci-plined and systematized method of manu-facturing them, and a volume of businesslarge enough to establish the necessary sys-tem and discipline. Again, the automobile is not a singleitem produced like the bicycle and sewing-machine. It has such a wide range of appli-cation in its utility and design, such a widerange of prices in its cost of production andmarketing, such a multitude of differentelements to cater to by the various demandsfor its usage, that the question becomesentirely foreign to any manufacturing prop-osition as compared with a bicycle or sewing-machine. A first-class Brougham or Victoria, asmade by the best carriage makers in thecountry, can be purchased no cheaper to-daythan it could ten or fifteen years ago. Thereare some lines of light buggies and delivery 20
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GENERAL CONDITIONS wagons which can be bought cheaper nowthan fifteen years ago, but automobiles aresubject to the same process of manufactureand by the same improved machinery thatthese vehicles are. Again, it should be remembered that thecarriage part of the vehicle, that is, body,painting and trimming, is but a small partof its total cost. It is necessary to use ball-bearing axles, and they are very expensiveto construct. This is required becauseevery friction-reducing device possible mustbe used. It is necessary to use rubber tiresin large sizes, first, to preserve the motorsand batteries; and, second, to give thenecessary traction. Steel tires can never bemade to operate successfully on motor vehi-cles. Then come the electric motors, stor-age batteries, controllers and other devices,all of which are, in themselves, expensiveas compared with the ordinary vehicle, andhave to be treated as such in the sellingprice. While the first cost of electric auto-mobiles is in many cases in ex

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