Mad in Pursuit Notebook
The Electric Car in 1891: France vs. USA
What is it? If you're a collector or shopkeeper, this is one of those things that floats around, here and there, defying categories. Framed, the 10-by-14-inch image demands to be hung up. But it is damp-stained and the automobile pictures are too small.
I decided to figure it out.
What's the story?
In the race to motorize carriages (and relieve city streets of horse dung), electric cars were an early contender. Key to the success of the electric car was its battery.
As soon as Edison invented the light bulb, he had visions of an electrical grid lighting up cities. In 1882, as the first central power plant went online in New York City, the question of how to store electricity to keep the massive generators efficient became critical.
As Edison struggled to find a more efficient alternative to the lead-acid battery, the Electric Storage Battery Company of Philadelphia (ESB) acquired patents from the French inventor Clement Payen and jumped into the game. It refined the lead-acid battery with its "Chloride Accumulators," which excelled at powering cars and streetcars.
This promotional piece celebrates its success.
What about the French car?
I can only guess why ESB included a photo of this French engraving in this ad. It shows the 1901 Petit Due, made by Charles Jeantaud (1840-1906). Jeantaud was a French engineer who, with the help of Camille Faure's battery, made the first ever electric vehicle in 1881.
And the American car?
The vehicle on the right is the Holtzer-Cabot Electric Carriage, made in Boston with an ESB chloride accumulator battery. "Clearly," carrying six distinguished passengers, it is bigger and better than the French Petit Due.
Why did the electric cars disappear?
Pure economics. The discovery of vast reserves of oil that could be refined into gasoline made the internal combustion engine cheaper to operate. And Henry Ford's perfection of the assembly-line made his cars cheaper to build. ESB survived, however, because gasoline-powered engines still needed a battery to power their starter motors.
Notes
Holtzer-Cabot Electric Co., Brookline, Massachusetts by Mark Theobald, Coachbuilt, 2012. This web page features the same photo that illustrates the ESB promotional ad.
Jeantaud - Shortlived French Electric Cars, Unique Cars and Parts.This web page features the same photo that illustrates the ESB promotional ad.
7 Aug 2025
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