1903 Waverley Model 20a Electric Surrey
Offered by RM Auctions | Phoenix, Arizona | January 20, 2012
Waverely existed in a few different uninterrupted iterations between 1898 and 1914. The company can trace its roots back to Chicago-based American Electric Vehicle Company which merged with Augustus Pope’s Indiana Bicycle Company in 1898. This is when the Waverely name first appeared. Pope pulled the marque into his own mini automotive empire, creating Pope-Waverely in 1903. This was one of what had to have been very few Waverelys produced in 1903 before the name change. After the Pope Manufacturing Company went bust, Waverely became its own marque once again in 1908.
This 1903 Model 20a features two DC electric motors creating a whopping three horsepower each with overload capacity of the same amount. A number of Waverelys still exists as the company was relatively successful in the early days of electric motoring. An advertisement for the company said: “No complications. Turn on power and steer.” As you can see from the picture below, it is relatively spartan and simple. A company that lived up to its word? Shocking.
RM estimates this car between $50,000-$80,000. For more info click here and for more on RM in Arizona click here.
Update: Sold $110,000.