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RE: A Closer Look at the CityEl: State of the Art in European Electric Motoring, Circa 1992
I find it amazing that the leaps in battery technology are giving an old, rather poor performing vehicle like this new life.
I can attest that the newer AGM batteries are a significant upgrade from flooded lead acid. We have one in our tiny house and it performs magnificently.
Jay Leno restored a 1914 Baker Electric and he estimated (or somebody did, I think I heard this from a podcast) that if you were to fit one of those 'cars' with as many Modern Nissan Leaf or Model S cells as you could fit in the the old battery compartments, it would travel between 600 and 700 miles at the original speed of 25 miles an hour. Just because it weighs so little, being mostly wood and leather.
25mph is just about optimal speed for electric motor efficiency, and much above 40mph over half of a vehicle's energy is spent simply pushing air out of the way.
Interesting. I had heard of 100 year old electric cars before. It's still mind boggling that the technology is that old.