Electric carriage aims to retire N.Y. horse-drawn icon

NEW YORK -- The workaday horse has begun to wear out its welcome in Gotham City.

The mayor and animal rights activists think the horses aren't treated correctly working as motive power for the horse-drawn carriages that charm tourists as they amble through Central Park and along nearby streets.

But how to replace such icons?

"You have a tremendous brand you're eliminating. You need as big a brand to replace it," says auto coachbuilder Jason Wenig, recalling what he told the horse people when they contacted him about six years ago.

One advocacy group, The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, says, "On the streets of NY, these horses are constantly nose-to-tailpipe and often show corresponding respiratory impairment," and their average lifespan is about one-third that of NY's police horses, suggesting the carriage horses would be better off working at other jobs.

A separate group, the not-for-profit NYCLASS animal advocacy organization, contacted Wenig about creating a horseless alternative. Wenig's a native New Yorker who now lives in Florida and runs The Creative Workshop, restoring old cars, dreaming up new ones and otherwise putting his hands on appealing machinery. His Horseless eCarriage is one answer to the NY situation.

He's built a big, eight-passenger, open car incorporating the best and most dramatic features from 1907 cars, including lots of brass trim. It's powered by an electric motor that's fueled by lithium-ion batteries.

Lower-emission than a horse in important ways.

And an eye-catcher that he thinks could be just as appealing to lovebirds looking for a few romantic moments circling the park, or families wanting a timeless memory of their visit to New York.

The big carriage on display at the New York International Auto Show at Jacob K. Javits Center here is a prototype. He says could go into production if he's sure there'd be a market. He says he'd hope to keep the price of each "below $200,000 for the buyer," who'd be replacing his horse-drawn unit with Wenig's Horseless eCarraige.

Wenig says the car's body panels are aluminum over wood, similar to how premium cars of the early 20th century were made. And the car has an old-fashioned "aah-ooogah" horn to round out the 1907 homage.

The rear-wheel-drive, 84-horsepower vehicle has 184 pounds-feet of torque, enough to tug along a full load of eight passengers plus driver, and has a claimed ranged of 100 miles.

The car could go up to 30 mph as outfitted, he says, and is programmed to go no faster than 5 mph when the GPS tells the car it's in Central Park, where there is enough pedestrian traffic to warrant a lower speed.

He jokes that a relatively simple gearing change would give it a top speed of 80 mph for rogue carriage drivers intent on a wild ride up the West Side Highway.