One of the oldest sales brochures for electric vehicles dates back to 1899 – yes, the electric vehicles already existed back then.
The French company Compagnie Française de Voitures Electromobiles – one of many new car companies in those years – offered a taxi, vis-à-vis, landaulet, coupé and a delivery van.Depending on the model, these had rear-wheel or front-wheel drive. Called “avant-train” or “arrière-train”, which referred to the entire engine unit plus drivetrain. Avant-train for luxury vehicles, as it was lighter and therefore more elegant, arrière-train for work vehicles.
And in the introduction, there is such amusing reading material as ‘the compressed air propulsion is still being tested, with the handicap of high pressure, which is dangerous in case of accidents.’
The company operated from 1898 to 1900 under the name C.F.V.E (Compagnie Française de Voitures Electromobiles) and subsequently, from 1900 to 1906, under the name Cardinet. It appears that a surviving example from 1905 is held at the Lars Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline (MA), United States. It is also confirmed that the brand’s first electric models were manufactured under licence from Bersey (England), which had been producing electric vehicles since 1895, having introduced the first electric taxis in London, where some 75 units were in service between 1897 and 1900.
The brochure from 1899, probably a unique copy, is valued at between 350 and 500€.
