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STOEWER ELECTRIC VEHICLES
1899 - 1905 In parallel with the production of their first petrol engined motor car, the Stoewer brothers built their first electric car. They recognised that an electric car would be quieter, more reliable and less polluting than a petrol engined car. Remembering that in the 1880's Bernhard Snr had installed electric power in his sewing machine manufacturing enterprise, sons Bernhard and Emil would have been familiar with this technology. Between 1899 and 1905 they continued to develop electric cars and established a reputation for supplying high quality, luxury cars for personal transport as well as vehicles for industrial application. In their product catalogue of 1902 they listed no less than 22 different models of electric vehicle. Of these, the industrial vehicles included ambulances, taxis, buses, vans, lorries and fire-fighting vehicles. During these early years more than half of Stoewer production was electric vehicles and it is little wonder that they were considered a leading manufacturer of such products.
By 1906 Stoewer had developed reliable, powerful and smooth running 4 and 6-cylinder petrol engines. These of course had unlimited range so long as petrol could be procured. At the time, electric vehicles were severely limited by battery capacity and hence power and range. After 1905 Stoewer no longer produced electric vehicles. |
This 1899 electric car is being driven by engineer, Wilhelm Zimmermann with Bernhard Stoewer Snr seated beside him. 
A commercial vehicle of 1900 with a 2.4 KiloWatt ( 3.2 HP) motor on each rear wheel 
A single seater from 1900 
A two seater Taxi from 1902 
An electric bus from 1902 
An electric fire engine from 1902 
A large 2-seater from 1903 |
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