More than 100 years ago, the world’s first two zero-emissions electric cars were built to order from the US congress.
In 1909, the US Congress ordered the Studebaker company to produce two special cars for $ 3,000, with the requirement that the cars be zero-emissions to run in the tunnel connecting the Capitol with the new Russel Senate building, according to Business. Insiders.
One of two cars driving in the tunnel connecting the US Capitol to the Russel Senate. (Photo: Business Insider).
Two cars named Tommy and Peggy are designed with driver’s seats in both directions because the tunnel is too narrow to turn around. The driver will drive through a tunnel of more than 300m long, with a speed of 19-24km/h, wait for passengers to get off and then change the driver’s seat to return. The bus can carry 12 passengers per trip.
Tommy and Peggy operated for less than a decade. They were stored and auctioned in 1939 for . Peggy is housed at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana.
Tommy, after being displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, was bought by collector William Swigart in 1950. Swigart remodeled Tommy in the mid-1950s but it still didn’t work. More than 60 years later, it remained in Swigart’s auto museum in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, until his widow and museum executive Marge Cutright decided to put it on the road again.
Repairs were carried out by the Pennsylvania College of Technology. The students here replaced 10 batteries and serviced the car so it was ready to go. On June 18, Tommy rolled again and won the National Automobile Heritage Award by the Historical Vehicle Association.