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www.us- tech.com


Tech-Op-ed October, 2019 SOUNDING OFF


By Michael Skinner Editor


Re-Volt: The Electric Car’s Return


F


or many people, myself included, the sight of an electric car on the road feels new and exciting. However, it’s easy to forget that fully electric, manned vehicles have been around for well over a century.


In 1859, Gaston Planté, a French physicist, invented the lead-acid bat-


tery — the heart of the early electric vehicle. The first was built by Gustave Trouvé, in which he used a small, rechargeable battery and an electric motor from Siemens to outfit a tricycle and putter along the streets of Paris in 1881. As ingenious as the device was, he was unable to patent it. Fast-forward to 1907 and the Anderson Electric Car Company (formerly


Anderson Carriage Company), based in Michigan, began to market an all- electric car known as the Detroit Electric. The Detroit Electric had a top speed of roughly 20 miles per hour and an advertised range of 80 miles. This was conservative, however, as tests proved that the car’s range could exceed 200 miles under the right conditions. Early adopters and proud owners of the Detroit Electric included John D.


Rockefeller and the “Wizard of Menlo Park” himself, Thomas Edison. The technology was ahead of its time. In the early 20th Century, it was reported that there were more electric cars on the road than so-called “gasoline-pow- ered explosion cars.” One major advantage of these early electric cars was their ability to start immediately, rather than the driver having to turn a dif- ficult crank to turn over a combustion engine. Over its three-decade production history, 13,000 Detroit Electrics were


built. At the time of writing, the car holds records for the last surviving elec- tric car, the longest-lasting electric car and, until recently, the largest total number of manufactured electric cars. The batteries that powered these ve- hicles came in two flavors. The standard model came with a rechargeable lead-acid battery, but for an extra $600, customers could upgrade to an Edi- son nickel-ion battery. At the time, the car sold new for around $2,000, which is equivalent to


around $60,000 today. I was lucky enough to see a working model up close at this year’s Battery Show in Novi, Michigan. On the show floor was one of the last Detroit Electrics in existence. Built like a Victorian carriage, the car was painted bright red and had a plush pinstriped interior. Its top-hat like “phone booth” carriage perched upon an aluminum frame


that housed two banks of seven six-volt batteries — one in the front and one in the back. The company’s slogan was that the Detroit Electric would “take you any- where that an automobile may go with a mileage radius further than you will ever care to travel in a day.” One obvious barrier to its further adop-


tion was the cost. At the time, with the $600 that a customer paid to upgrade the battery, he or she could have bought two brand-new Ford Model Ts instead. Today, our industry is gearing up to


support a mass transition from an automo- tive industry tethered to the combustion en- gine, to an entirely electric future. Since Tesla burst into the market, most estab- lished car companies, such as BMW, Nis- san, Chevrolet, Ford, and Volkswagen, have followed suit. Some notable newer entries include Fisker, Faraday Future, Byton, and many others. The switch to electric vehicles makes


PUBLISHER’S NOTE


By Jacob Fattal Publisher


Biennial Bash: productronica 2019


This issue of U.S. Tech is a milestone every two years. While the majority of major annual trade shows are behind us, it marks a final push to continue on to Munich, Germany, for productronica. This year’s show hosts roughly 1,500 exhibitors and will attract around 50,000 attendees over its four days. Under the tagline “Accelerating Inno- vation,” the massive event is likely to live up to its hype. With halls upon halls of innovative products in


electronics manufacturing, many companies have been holding back 2019 product announcements in order to compete with the sheer number of launches at the show. This year we’ve seen major advancements in machine- to-machine (M2M) communications, modular and flexi- ble capital equipment, a further rise of X-ray, optical and acoustic imaging and counting systems, and the clear advantages of smart material storage. One of the most exciting things about productron-


sense. First, the power generated by the electric motor is much more efficiently transferred to the movement of the ve- hicle, in a linear fashion, rather than a curve. Acceleration is much easier in an electric car. Second, electric vehicles can reduce harmful emissions by both eliminating the exhaust tailpipe of conventional cars, and by taking out all the preceding emissions that come along with manufacturing a gasoline vehicle. No more gasoline extraction, refining or burning. After the early success of the Detroit Electric and its eventual collapse to


the combustion engine, nearly 100 hundred years later, it’s safe to say that the electric vehicle has returned for good. r


1916 Detroit Electric Model 60 Brougham.


ica is its hugely diverse character. Munich is an inter- national industrial hub and productronica reflects that very clearly. According to the show management, 58 percent of visitors to the 2017 show were from outside Germany and nearly half of the exhibitors also came from abroad. After productronica, our efforts are focused on IPC


APEX 2020. While not similar in scope to productronica, the concentration of key industry players, combined


with a well-structured conference schedule, allows APEX to compete on the world stage as a premier event in the electronics manufacturing industry. Each year we are thrilled with the amount of progress that our industry


makes. In such a dynamic field, our commitment is to highlighting the best and brightest technologies and services, while covering a wide variety of electron- ics trade shows and events. We’ll see you in Munich. r


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