Electric Vehicle History (before the Ford Model T):

• Did you know the first cars were electric?
• German engineer Andreas Flocken built the first real electric car in 1888.  
• 1889 - 1891. William Morrison, from Des Moines, Iowa, creates the first successful electric vehicle in the U.S 
• 1898 - Ferdinand Porsche produced an electric vehicle called "P" before he created the world's first hybrid offering (both electric battery and engine powered.)
• 1906 - Mercedes-Benz also offered an electric model called the Mercedes Mixte which was adopted as a taxi in cities and developed into a race car in 1907.
• In the early 1900's, 1/3 of all vehicles on the road were electric. They quickly disappeared around 1915-1920 as Ford's Model T production took off (an affordable vehicle for the middle class took off.) 

History of the Ford Model T:

• Model T production started Oct. 1, 1908, until May 26, 1927
•  The first production Model T was built on August 12, 1908, and left the factory on September 27, 1908, at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit Michigan. 
• On May 26, 1927, the 15 millionth Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line at the Highland Park, Michigan plant.
• Ford had been building Model T’s at the Highland Park Michigan assembly plant since the beginning of 1910.
• On October 7, 1913, for the first time ever, automobiles were assembled using Ford’s innovative moving assembly line. The assembly line had been part of the plan since before the Highland Park plant was constructed making the 1914 model year.
• In 1913, Ford produced 60,000 Model Ts; it took about 600 minutes to build a car. 
• With the moving assembly line in 1914, the improvement was significant: 400,000 units, with a 73-minute build time. 
• Things were exceedingly impressive by 1921: 2.5 million cars; a 53-second build.
• The Ford Model T held the record as the number-one produced automobile in history until it was surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle on 2-17-1972  when the 15,007034th Beetle rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg Germany (45 years later.)
• The Model T is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans.  The price started at $780 in 1910 (~$25,500 in today's money) to $290 in 1924 (~$9,500 in today's money) 
• The Model T was known as the Tin Lizzie (1915 was the cutoff of the Brass Era and Tin was used instead to lower cost and easier to produce.)  
•  Motor - 2.9L inline four-cylinder engine with 20HP (16-25 MPG)
• Styles offered were a five-seat Touring car, a three-passenger Roadster,  a two-seat Runabout, a three-passenger Coupe, and a seven-seat town car. (photos below.)

What color can you get?:

• Did Henry Ford say, "You can have whatever color you want as long as it is black?" 
• Answer: Yes and No.  
• It was only offered in black from 1914 until 1925 but production started in 1908 (6 years of other colors.)  
• When the Model T started production it was not offered in black and offered in Gray, Green, Blue, and Red (Green was available for touring models, town cars, and couples.)  
• When the cost and price came down and production increased dramatically black dried faster than other colors and black was the lowest-cost paint.  

Driving the Model T:

• How do you drive it?  
• On the steering columns are two levers.  
• The left one is for timing.
• The right one is the gas.  (My Model T Speedster moved the gas to a floor pedal.)
• On the floorboard are three pedals which are directly connected to the transmission.
• The right pedal is the brake (I know, how is a brake in the transmission where there is oil?) 
• All three pedals control and constrict bands in the transmission.  
• Inside the bands were cotton and wool (wool lasting longer.)  Today Kevlar is used which lasts a long time.
• The right pedal controls the bake band.  It will stop you like a bike with bad brakes, but back then they drove on dirt roads without much traffic.
• The middle pedal is reverse (press it and you start going backward.) 
• The left pedal is called the clutch but it is not a clutch.  It is a low gear and a high gear.  The Model T was a 2-speed transmission; however, really the low (when fully pressed down) is to get the Model T going, and then you release the pedal all the way up and now you are in direct drive (One rotation from the motor to the drive shaft.) 
• In direct drive, it is easy to get up to  30-35 MPH, and back then moving from a horse carriage to this speed was lightning fast.