Are steam cars poised for an epic comeback?

By Sebastian Anthony on February 18, 2013

Once upon a time, the steam engine reigned supreme — first in trains and heavy tractors, as you well know, but eventually in cars as well. It’s quite hard to fathom today, but at the turn of the 20th century, more than half the cars in the US were steam-powered. The steam engine was so advanced that, in 1906, a steam car called the Stanley Rocket even held land speed record — a heady 127 mph!

Now, you might think that the steam car was only a success because internal combustion engines (ICE) didn’t exist yet — but in actual fact, steam cars and ICE cars were developed contemporaneously. Because engineers already had 100 years of steam engine experience, though, the steam car had a rather large head start. While hand-cranked ICEs were breaking the arms of hapless operators, by 1900 steam cars were already highly automated — and, with no clutch or gearbox (steam provides constant pressure, unlike the piston strokes of an ICE), very easy to drive. The one caveat, of course, was that you had to wait a few minutes for the boiler to heat up.

A Model T FordIn a few short years, though, Henry Ford would come along and change everything. While the steam engine might’ve been technically superior to the ICE, they couldn’t match the price of mass-produced Fords. Steam car makers tried to shift gears and market their cars as premium, luxury products, but by 1918 the Model T Ford was six times cheaper than a Stanley Steamer (the most popular steam car at the time). With the advent of the electric starter motor in 1912, and continuing advances to the efficiency of ICEs, it wasn’t long until the steam car vanished from our roads.

Under pressure
For the last 90 years, steam cars have remained on the verge of extinction, the hulking beasts being wheeled out for vintage car shows but not much more. Quietly, though, in the background, research has quietly trickled onward — partly because of our reliance on steam turbines in power generation, but also because some people believe steam engines can actually be superior to internal combustion engines.

ICEs have intrinsic drawbacks: They require fossil fuels, they produce a lot of pollution, and they’re noisy. Steam engines, by comparison, are very quiet, very clean, and can use almost any fuel. Steam engines, by virtue of providing constant pressure, don’t require gearing — you have maximum torque and acceleration instantly, from rest. For urban driving, where stopping and starting consume huge amounts of fossil fuels, the continuous power from steam engines could be very interesting.

Technology has come a long way since the 1920s, too — most notably, we’re now masters of materials. Original steam cars needed huge, heavy boilers to withstand the heat and pressure, and even small steam cars weighed a couple of tons as a result. With modern materials, steam cars could be as light as their ICE cousins. Throw in an advanced condenser and some kind of flash boiler, and it should be possible to build a steam car with decent efficiency and a warm-up time that’s measured in seconds rather than minutes.

The Rankine cycle, which the Cyclone Technologies steam engine is based on

In recent years, these advances have coalesced into some exciting developments. In 2009, a British team set a new steam-powered land speed record of 148 mph, finally breaking the Stanley Rocket’s record which had stood for more than 100 years. In the 1990s, a Volkswagen R&D spin-off called Enginion claimed it had built a steam engine that had comparable efficiency to ICEs, but with lower emissions. In recent years, Cyclone Technologies claims it has developed a steam engine that’s twice as efficient as an ICE. As of today, though, neither engine has found its way into a commercial vehicle.

Moving forward, it’s unlikely that steam cars will ever unseat the internal combustion engine, if only because of the massive momentum of Big Oil. One day, though, when we finally decide to take a serious look at the future of personal transportation, maybe the quiet, green, gliding grace of steam power will get a second chance.