(VIDEO) What it's like to drive an electric car manufactured 114 years ago, which has survived to this day

Many car enthusiasts know that, in fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, electric cars were in some places even more widespread than those with gasoline engines and were one step away from defeating the latter in the battle for dominance. But, the gasoline ones won in the end and it took another century for the electric ones to start conquering the world again. Well, how was it to drive an electric car produced in those days, a century ago? What's it like to drive it nowadays?

The protagonists of the Donut Media YouTube channel managed to test a Baker Electric, produced in 1909, so 114 years ago. Surprisingly, the car is still running today, being in the Jay Leno collection.

In those days, this electric car was nicknamed a horseless carriage, because its design was also very similar to a carriage. The car had electric lights, while humanity had not yet laid electricity in all cities! What's more, this electric car goes between 60 and 80 miles on one battery charge, so it has a range of between 96 and 130 km! The first generation Nissan Leaf can be compared with such autonomy! And here we are talking about a car from 114 years ago!

The maximum speed was only about 25 miles per hour, or 40 km/h. But, for those times and for urban speeds, it was a very attractive car. New York already had about 15,000 electric cars and a network of outlets, and electric cars also had the advantage of a more pleasant start compared to cranking an internal combustion engine or starting a steam engine. It is true that charging takes a long time, usually over 24 hours.

And the car still runs surprisingly well today, and its refurbished battery can still provide excellent electricity storage capacity. Check out what the driving experience looks like below, with particularly curious things in the way the car starts and handles while driving, but also what a slightly longer trip with it looks like. In addition to everything, Jay Leno, the owner of the car and also a collector and a deep connoisseur of automotive history, tells other interesting aspects of the history of this model.

See it all in the video below.