La Cuadra

La Cuadra was a Spanish company in the automotive industry.

Company History

1898 founded the Spanish admiral Emilio de la Cuadra and the engineer Carlos Vellino the company in Barcelona. The company's goal was to develop automobiles and marketable. The Company was the first automobile factory in Spain (according to register of 1899). Around the turn of the century, the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt also worked for the Spanish entrepreneur de la Cuadra in the then widespread electric vehicle industry. Birkigt advanced combustion engines and braking systems, Vellino the electric motors, batteries and drive technology, the body Tamaro designed Domingo. 1901 Juan Jaime Castro took over the company and founded the firm of J. Castro Sociedad en Comandita. It was later Hispano -Suiza.

Rolling stock

Electric cars

1899, the first Spanish automobile was built under the name " La Cuadra " in Barcelona, ​​which, however, proved unsuccessful.

First Series: " La Cuadra 1" looked like a coach, had two seats and had a 3- kW electric motor.

Hybrid drive

Another version was built with an additional five -horsepower engine that powered a dynamo and was able to charge the batteries of the vehicle. La Cuadra thus built in these years one of the first hybrid drive in the world.

The end of 1899 vehicles with two-cylinder four -stroke internal combustion engine, 1100 cc and 4 hp were built. It was approved in 1900 to Don Javier Soria Olozábel Ramey and wore the number SO -1. Another vehicle was registered in Lleida with the label L -1.

It was followed by the version 2; " La Cuadra 2 " had two electric motors and a 25 -horsepower engine.

Electric trucks and electric bus

Also at that time a 5-ton truck, which was powered by two 12 kW electric motors, as well as a 20 - seater battery bus was built. All vehicles was operated with 110 volt batteries of 450 Ah.

Technical data of the bus: length 5.5 meters, width 2.2 meters, height 3 meters, maximum speed 18 km / h

A bus was purchased in 1900 by the city of Barcelona, where he was engaged in scheduled operation. The practical difficulties, the short range of about 35 kilometers and the weight of the batteries led very quickly to the setting of the novel means of transport.

Since that time, the handling and procurement of batteries were a problem, Carlos Vellino founded his own production accumulators. At the same time, the young Ferdinand Porsche worked in Austria at the company Lohner in Vienna even on a scooter, but with wheel hub motor. 1902 also began the company Tribelhorn in Switzerland with the construction of electric vehicles for postal and hotel vehicles with La Cuadra accumulators.

Gasoline cars

Birkigt developed two models with petrol engines. The 4 ½ HP had a single-cylinder engine, the 7 ½ HP over a two-cylinder engine with 1101 cc capacity. The work started at six vehicles, but only two vehicles have been completed, one of them still exist.

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