Woods Motor Vehicle Company was an American manufacturer of

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

s in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, between 1899 and 1916. In 1915 they produced the Dual Power (U.S. Patent # 1244045) with both electric and internal combustion engines which continued until 1918. The company was started by

Clinton Edgar Woods Clinton Edgar Woods (February 7, 1863 – December 19, 1927) was an Electrical engineering, electrical and mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer, inventor, List of defunct automobile manufacturers of the United States, manufacturer of autom ...

who literally "wrote the first book on electric vehicles." The 1904 ''Woods Stanhope'' was a stanhope model. It could seat 2 passengers and sold for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1800. Twin electric motors, situated at the rear of the car, produced 2.5 hp (1.9 kW) each. The car weighed 2650 lb (1202 kg) with a 40 cell battery. The 1904 ''Woods Victoria'' was a

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

-styled model. It could seat 2 passengers and sold for

1900. The same twin electric motors as the Stanhope were used, though a 4-speed

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

was fitted. The car weighed . Forty-cell batteries were also used, with an top speed.

Founding

The Woods Motor Vehicle Company was founded on the 28th of September 1899 with a capitalization of $10,000,000. It was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey. It assumed the patents of the Fischer Equipment Company of Chicago and a factory at 110-120 East Twentieth St., Chicago with plans to upgrade another facility at 547 Wabash Avenue in Chicago for another factory. Frederick Nichols of

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, Canada, was installed as the first president and C.E. Woods was installed as one of the company's directors. The headquarters and showroom for Woods Motor Vehicle Company were located in an 1891 loft structure in Chicago's early Motor Row at the modern address of 1130 S. Wabash Avenue, near the intersection with modern Roosevelt Road. (Chicago introduced its present address and street name system beginning in 1909.) The building long outlived the Woods Motor Vehicle Company, but demolition of the historic building began in the autumn of 2024.

Early hybrid

At $2,700, The Dual Power Model 44 Coupe of 1911 to 1918 had a 4-cylinder internal combustion engine as well as electric power. Below the car was electric powered and above it the conventional engine took over to take the vehicle to a maximum of around . It is today considered a historic

hybrid electric vehicle A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that couples a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with one or more electric engines into a hybrid vehicle drivetrain, combined propulsion system. The presence of the electri ...

. Some sources wrongly state that the Woods Dual Power car manufactured by the Woods Motor Vehicle Company in Chicago also used the Entz transmission. The Woods Dual Power had a drive-train based on Roland Fend's U.S. patent number 1,303,870, using a clutch between the gas engine and the electric motor, allowing the engine to also drive the car through the armature shaft of the motor, which itself was connected to the driveshaft. The Woods car was similar in many ways to today's hybrids. It used both a gasoline engine and an electric motor to propel the wheels, had regenerative braking to recharge the less cumbersome batteries, and in some circumstances the car could charge the batteries while running on gasoline.

Patents

* : ''Automobile'' (dual propulsion units) * : Automobile (gasoline and electric dynamo gear change device)

References

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Founding

Early hybrid

Patents

See also

Other Early Electric Vehicles

References

Further reading