EV DEPARTMENT
May, 2o2o, DARTZ MotorZ, ancestor of RBVZ released relaunch of historical EV car label Frese.
Frese & Co. ( Russian Фрезе и К ° ) was a Russian manufacturer of automobiles and trucks.
Pyotr Alexandrowitsch Frese (1844–1918) founded a company in 1874 to manufacture horse-drawn carriages. In 1876 the company was merged with Karl Nellis’ horse-drawn carriage workshop. The new company was called Nellis and Frese. In 1893 the company was in Frese & Co. renamed. From December 1, 1899, the company was converted into a stock corporation. In 1896, in collaboration with Yevgeny Alexandrowitsch Jakowlew, the first Russian automobile, the Jakowlew & Frese, was built. In 1902 the production of automobiles with the brand name Frese began. Electric cars P.A. Frese. Pyotr Aleksandrovich Frese, one of the designers of the first Russian car and the head of the Joint-Stock Company for the Construction and Operation of Frese and Co cars, took over the construction of Romanov’s electric vehicles. The idea of developing alternative public transport captured him too – almost at the same time he began work on electric vehicles of his own design. P.A. Frese did not experiment with cabs unusual for Russia, but chose the concept already widespread by that time in Europe on gasoline and electric cars, which outwardly resembled an ordinary flight. So far it has not been possible to find out who and where manufactured the electric motors and accumulators for Frese and Co., but the company made the chassis and body itself.
The first electric car, Frese, was ready by early 1900. On a four-seater car, two electric motors with a total power of 7 hp were installed, driving each rear wheel with chains. Thus, as on Romanov’s cars, the need for a differential has disappeared.
The mass of the car with batteries was about 70 poods, the power reserve when moving at a speed of up to 18 versts per hour – from 35 to 50 versts. Soon a second model of the car appeared, similar to the first, but somewhat lighter. A little later, improved two- and four-seater electric vehicles were built, equipped with one 3.5 hp engine and differential. The number of built electric crews “Frese” has not yet been established, probably no more than a dozen of them were released. However, an advertisement from 1900 read: “At present, continuing to build city carriages in the same form as it was before, the factory, perfectly equipped with machines and machine tools of the latest systems, is able to fulfill precisely orders for automobiles; it is one of the few Russian factories where electricity is used as a driving force. While building cars with gasoline engines, the factory also builds electric cars, examples of which can be seen on the streets of St. Petersburg.” At the Frese factory, a battery charging station was set up, an attempt was made to organize the rental movement of electric vehicles not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Riga and Warsaw. Obviously, the entrepreneur’s initiative did not find proper support, the first hired Frese cars were cars with internal combustion engines.
No reliable information has yet been found about the Frese electric cargo carriers. It is known that the St. Petersburg Partnership of the Georges Bormand factory ordered five trucks from Frese and Co. for the delivery of chocolate and confectionery products. Two cars, which arrived in 1904, are known - an onboard platform and a van with “explosive engines” of the French company De Dion-Bouton. And the first three cars purchased earlier were obviously electric.
