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Belgian race car driver Camille Jenatzy with his record-breaking electric car, La Jamais Contente, which exceeded 100 kph, 1899
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this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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wiki/La_Jamais_Contente
The benchmark to beat was this at 92.69 km/h:
That's awesome. Also shows how much oil companies have hindered the development of electric vehicles. Every other tech has 100x in 125 years, electric vehicles only became somewhat mainstream in the last 10-15?
Batteries have limited the development of electric vehicles. The only reason why battery research existed was consumer electronics. As for the motors, they really have not changed much in 125 years because they are already very efficient.
I wish one of the pages would list how that weight is distributed along the different parts. I would wager half of that weight, 700kg, was the battery, with the electric engine being ~250kg.
250 for the engine is way too much.
A typical 22kw electric engine today weighs about 200kg, so I don't think 250kg is too much
https://www.auctelia.com/en/materiel-occasion/moteur-electrique-22-kw-weg-w22/uQ7C20m1XhI1_5uS6FaAM
That's due to the materials, cooling, & intended (decades of continuous, low-vibration, & safe industrial?) use - the one you linked has a cast iron frame, which is prob the majority of those 200kg.
Here is a random example (bcs there is a table included with power & weight) under 100kg that looks about the same: globalsources.com/permanent-magnet-motor_1210699575f.htm.
But I def don't know anything about electric motors 120 years ago, what was available, how the rich kids did their hobbies, etc.
And I do agree that the 250 estimate might not be too much - ~~however that means that the car was unbalanced af & the driver had to sit on the opposite side of the (initially one) electric motor to provide counterbalance (instead of the motor just being mounted in the centre of the car)~~ nvm, it had two.
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