A short history of electric vehicles

Few Americans realize the market competition between electric vehicles (EVs) and the internal combustion engine (ICE) began in the early 1800s. The first EV was developed in 1828 by Robert Anderson, but EVs didn’t become commercially practical until the 1870. Pictured below is of an early EV. Not much different from a carriage, the early EVs had the same advantages EVs have today, "they [were] quiet, easy to drive and didn’t emit smelly pollutants."

Pictured here is one of the first electric cars, an 1834 Baker

EVs were one-third of all cars on American roads in the early 1900s but, the disadvantages of heavy, lead-acid batteries with limited range needing constant recharging prevented EVs from gaining more market share. In 1912 Henry Ford began to mass produce the Model-T and EVs couldn’t compete with the low-cost vehicle. By 1920, the number of EVs on the road began to decline and by 1935 the EV all but disappeared from American roads. 

Fast forward to the 1960s and 1970s, when gasoline prices skyrocket, America began to rediscover EVs. In 1974, GM developed the modern, urban EV and by 1975 SebringVanguard became the sixth largest US automaker with its wedge-shaped Citicar that had a range of driving 50-60 miles on one electric charge. Again, limited range and performance caused interest in EVs to wane, but the lack of emissions and greenhouse gases (GHGs) would cause a market resurgence in the early 1990s.