1902 Baker Electric Runabout
At a time when gasoline cars were noisy, dirty, and tiresome to crank start, and steam cars suffered from limited range and long warm-up periods, electric vehicles found a receptive audience in American towns and cities.
The Baker Electric Motor Vehicle Company of Cleveland, Ohio capitalized on this demand, and by 1910 was selling more than three times as many units annually as any other electric car manufacturer.
The earliest Baker models came in two variants: the Imperial Runabout, priced at $850, and the more luxurious Phaeton Stanhope. Both shared a proprietary chassis with a centrally mounted electric motor powered by 12-cell batteries, offering two speeds of six and twelve miles per hour. The Runabout tipped the scales at about 800 pounds.
Company founder Walter C. Baker set a speed record of 47 mph over the mile at Staten Island in June 1902, driving a specially built car fitted with a 12 hp Elwell-Parker motor, though the attempt ended when the vehicle crashed into the crowd, killing two spectators.
Early Baker customers included Thomas Edison and the King of Siam. Baker merged with Rauch & Lang in June 1915, by which point the electric car’s popularity was already beginning to wane.
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