Charles Proteus Steinmetz expected electric vehicles to become commonplace far sooner than they did. In 1914, he predicted that more than a million would be in use within about a decade. The forecast missed its timeline, but his reasoning about city driving, charging access, vehicle range and speed makes him an unusually practical early voice in the history of electric cars.
Who was Charles Proteus Steinmetz?
Steinmetz was an electrical engineer known for work that made electrical machinery and power systems easier to understand and design. His interest in electric vehicles extended beyond prediction: he argued for their place in urban transportation, worked on a vehicle motor design and organized a company to build electric trucks and cars.
That story belongs to a period when electric automobiles developed alongside gasoline-powered cars, not to a simple precursor of today’s EV market. The Library of Congress guide to early automobiles offers broader context and a route to digitized historical newspapers.
What did Steinmetz predict about electric cars?
At a 1914 National Electric Light Association convention in Philadelphia, Steinmetz forecast mass use of electric pleasure and business vehicles. IEEE Spectrum’s 2026 account reproduces his words: “I have no doubt that in 10 years, more or less—rather less than more—we will see the field of the pleasure and business vehicle covered by such an electric car in large numbers. And I believe I underestimate when I say that 1,000,000 or more will be used.”
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The scale of the forecast was striking against the figures IEEE Spectrum reports for the period: about 1.2 million gasoline-powered cars and 35,000 EVs in the United States. The predicted adoption did not arrive on Steinmetz’s timetable. IEEE Spectrum reports that about one million electric vehicles were on U.S. roads by 2018, roughly a century after his speech—not within the decade he anticipated.
Why did he think electric vehicles would succeed?
City trips suited the cars he had in mind
Steinmetz argued that the short, relatively slow trips common in cities favored electric cars. He was not claiming that an electric vehicle suited every journey; his case focused on a particular use: urban driving.
Charging could benefit electric utilities
He also saw a business opportunity for power companies. If drivers charged vehicles at night, utilities could sell more electricity. IEEE Spectrum reports that Steinmetz estimated this could mean US $75 million in additional annual business for power stations, an amount the 2026 account expresses as about $2.5 billion today. Both are figures attributed to his historical estimate and the account’s modernized equivalent, not a present-day forecast.
His 1920 assessment included drawbacks
A typed comparison from 1920, as described by IEEE Spectrum, listed maintenance, reliability, ease of operation and operating cost among electric vehicles’ advantages. It also identified dependence on charging stations, limited range and lower speed as disadvantages. These were Steinmetz’s period assessment, not a like-for-like comparison with modern vehicles.
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Did Steinmetz invent an electric car?
He worked on vehicle engineering, but the available account does not establish him as the inventor of the electric car. IEEE Spectrum says he developed a double-rotor motor integrated into a vehicle’s rear axle. The design removed the need for a mechanical differential or drive shaft, and Dey Electric used it in a roadster.
The roadster did not succeed commercially. IEEE Spectrum reports that it cost under $1,000, while a Ford Model T cost about half as much. That is a narrow comparison of reported purchase prices, not a full accounting of performance, operating costs or lifetime expense.
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What happened to the Steinmetz Electric Motor Car Corp.?
Steinmetz founded the company in 1920. It demonstrated an electric truck in 1922; IEEE Spectrum reports that the truck had a 52-mile range. The account also recounts a contemporary New York Times report that it climbed a 14.5 percent grade in 51 seconds.
The company’s ambitions exceeded its output. It planned annual production of 1,000 trucks and 300 lightweight delivery cars, but IEEE Spectrum reports that it made 48 vehicles in total. The demonstration and reported specifications show an effort to build working vehicles, not evidence of a lasting commercial business.
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What is Steinmetz’s place in EV history?
Steinmetz’s forecast was premature, and his electric vehicles belonged to a different technological and commercial era. His importance is not that he predicted the modern market precisely. It is that he discussed adoption through concrete questions—where people drove, how far vehicles could travel, how fast they needed to go, where they could charge and what utilities might gain.
For readers who want to explore his wider career, The Henry Ford catalogs his 1916 book America and the New Epoch as a work on corporate socialism and universal electrification; its catalog record does not characterize it as a book about EVs. The Henry Ford catalog entry provides that context. An earlier engineering text, Theoretical Elements of Electrical Engineering, is documented as a 1902 book in its Internet Archive record; that work reflects his engineering legacy rather than serving as a direct account of his vehicle advocacy.
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