1900 Riker Electric Automobile

Andrew Lawrence Riker formed the Riker Electric Motor Company in 1888 in Brooklyn, New York having experimented by fitting an electric motor to a Coventry Tricycle in 1887. He built his first car in 1894, although it was no more than two bicycles joined together and equipped with battery and a motor. Two years later his electric racing car defeated a petrol car at the Narragansett Races, and in 1900 he covered a mile in 63 seconds, a record for the American continent, although not as fast as Jenatzy's kilometre in 34 seconds in "Le Jamais Contente" in the previous year. Riker built his first proper car in 1895 and made his first sale in 1897. From then on a variety of Electric vehicles bore the Riker name as the Riker Electric Vehicle Company of Elizabethport, New Jersey : There were light runabouts with 3 or 4 wheels, 4 seat victorias, 5 seat surreys, hansom cabs and heavy trucks. In 1900 he merged his activities with the Electric Vehicle Company, makers of the Columbia, and thereafter only trucks were made under the Riker name.
In 1901 he designed a petrol car which he offered to the Electric Vehicle Company, but they were not interested. He therefore formed the Riker Motor Vehicle Company to make petrol cars and built ewo designs, an 8hp 2 cylinder and a 16hp 4 cylinder. These were developed by the Overman Company of Chicopee Falls who merged with Locomobile in October 1902 and went into production in 1903 as the first petrol engined Locomobiles.