Electric vehicles became possible in 1827 when Hungarian priest Ányos Jedlik built the first electric motor; the next year he used it to power a small model car powered by a non-rechargeable battery.
In 1838, Robert Davidson built an electric locomotive that attained a speed of four miles per hour (6 km/h). A British patent was granted in 1840 for the use of rails as conductors of electric current, and similar US patents were issued to Lilley and Colten in 1847.
Usable electric cars appeared during the 1890s. An electric car held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900. In the early 20th century, the high cost, low top speed, and short range of battery electric vehicles left them unable to compete with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for consumer use. Electric vehicles were used for forklift trucks, freight equipment platform trucks, and ambulances.pp.8–9 Batten, Chris Ambulances Osprey Publishing, 4 March 2008
The first mass-produced electric cars appeared in America in the early 1900s. In 1902, the Studebaker Automobile Company entered the automotive business with electric cars. p231 In 1900, 28 percent of the cars on the road in the US were electric. EVs were so popular that even President Woodrow Wilson and his secret service agents toured Washington, D.C., in their Milburn Light Electrics.AAA World Magazine. Jan–Feb 2011, p. 53 Electric trucks were an established niche into the 1920s.
In the 20th century, electric rail became common. Tow tractors and urban delivery vehicles, such as the iconic British milk float emerged. For most of the 20th century, the UK was the world's largest user of electric road vehicles. Electric trains transported coal from underground mines, since the motors did not use valuable oxygen. Switzerland's lack of fossil fuel resources forced the electrification of its rail network.
At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in electric and alternative fuel vehicles increased due to concern over their emissions and advancing battery technology.
Cumulative sales of light-duty plug-in electric cars reached 10 million units by the end of 2020. Plug-in sales totaled 3.24 million in 2020, up from 2.26 million in 2019. Europe, with nearly 1.4 million units surpassed China as the largest EV market for the first time since 2015.
Origins
Electric model cars The invention of the first model electric vehicle is attributed to various people. In 1828, the Hungarian priest and physicist Ányos Jedlik invented an early type of electric motor, and created a small model powered by it. Between 1832 and 1839, Scottish inventor Robert Anderson developed a crude electric carriage. In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands, and his assistant Christopher Becker from Germany created a small-scale electric car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.
Electric locomotives In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a similar contraption which operated on a short, circular, electrified track. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837, in Scotland by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen. It was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Davidson later built a larger locomotive named Galvani, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators. It hauled a load of at for a distance of . It was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their security of employment.Renzo Pocaterra, Treni, De Agostini, 2003
A patent for the use of rails as conductors of electric current was granted in England in 1840, and similar patents were issued to Lilley and Colten in the United States in 1847. The first battery rail car was used in 1887 on the Royal Bavarian State Railways.
First full-scale electric cars Rechargeable batteries that provided a viable means for storing electricity on board a vehicle did not come into being until 1859, with the invention of the lead–acid battery by French physicist Gaston Planté. Camille Alphonse Faure, another French scientist, significantly improved the design of the battery in 1881; his improvements greatly increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacture on an industrial scale.
What is likely the first human-carrying electric vehicle with its own power source was tested along a Paris street in April 1881 by French inventor Gustave Trouvé. In 1880 Trouvé improved the efficiency of a small electric motor developed by Siemens (from a design purchased from in 1867) and using the recently developed rechargeable battery, fitted it to an English James Starley tricycle, so inventing the world's first electric car. Although this was successfully tested on 19 April 1881 along the Rue Valois in central Paris, he was unable to patent it. Trouvé swiftly adapted his battery-powered motor to marine propulsion; to make it easy to carry his marine conversion to and from his workshop to the nearby River Seine, Trouvé made it portable and removable from the boat, thus inventing the outboard motor. On 26 May 1881, the 5-metre Trouvé boat prototype, called Le Téléphone reached a speed of going upstream and downstream.Communication made by Trouvé to the Académie des Sciences de Paris, 1881
English inventor Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite, built his first electric car in Wolverhampton in 1884, although the only documentation is a photograph from 1895.
Parker's long-held interest in the construction of more fuel-efficient vehicles led him to experiment with electric vehicles. He also may have been concerned about the malign effects smoke and pollution were having in London. Production of the car was in the hands of the Elwell-Parker Company, established in 1882 for the construction and sale of electric trams. The company merged with other rivals in 1888 to form the Electric Construction Corporation; this company had a virtual monopoly on the British electric car market in the 1890s. The company manufactured the first electric 'dog cart' in 1896.
France and the United Kingdom were the first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles. German engineer Andreas Flocken built the first real electric car, the Flocken Elektrowagen, in 1888.
Electric trains were also used to transport coal out of mines, as their motors did not use up precious oxygen. Before the pre-eminence of internal combustion engines, electric automobiles also held many speed and distance records. Among the most notable of these records was the breaking of the speed barrier, by Camille Jenatzy on 29 April 1899 in his 'rocket-shaped' vehicle Jamais Contente, which reached a top speed of . Also notable was Ferdinand Porsche's design and construction of an all-wheel drive electric car, powered by a motor in each hub, which also set several records in the hands of its owner E.W. Hart.
The first electric car in the United States was developed in 1890–91 by Scotland-born William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa; the vehicle was a six-passenger wagon capable of reaching a speed of . It was not until 1895 that consumers began to devote attention to electric vehicles after A.L. Ryker introduced the first electric tricycles to the U.S.
1890s–1910s: Golden age
Interest in motor vehicles increased greatly in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Electric battery-powered taxis became available at the end of the 19th century. In London, Walter Bersey designed a fleet of such cabs and introduced them to the streets of London in 1897. They were soon nicknamed "Hummingbirds" due to the idiosyncratic humming noise they made. In the same year in New York City, the Samuel's Electric Carriage and Wagon Company began running 12 electric hansom cabs. The company ran until 1898 with up to 62 cabs operating until it was reformed by its financiers to form the Electric Vehicle Company.
Electric vehicles had a number of advantages over their early-1900s competitors. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. They also did not require gear changes. (While steam-powered cars also had no gear shifting, they suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings.) The cars were also preferred because they did not require a manual effort to start, as did gasoline cars which featured a hand crank to start the engine.
Electric cars found popularity among well-heeled customers who used them as city cars, where their limited range proved to be even less of a disadvantage.
Acceptance of electric cars was initially hampered by a lack of power infrastructure. In the United States by 1900, 40 per cent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 per cent by electricity, and 22 per cent by petrol. The United States became the country where electric cars had gained the most acceptance. Most early electric vehicles were massive, ornate carriages designed for the upper-class customers that made them popular. They featured luxurious interiors and were replete with expensive materials. Electric vehicles were often marketed as luxury cars for women, which may have generated a stigma among male consumers. Sales of electric cars peaked in the early 1910s. There were over 300 listed manufacturers who produced a vehicle in the United States until 1942.
In 1910s, The Standard Electric used Westinghouse electric motors and claimed to have a range of 110 miles on a charge. It was operated by a tiller from the left-hand side. The controller had six forward speeds, and had a top speed of 20 mph. The model M was a closed model Coupe or open Runabout, and priced from $1,785 to $1,900.
The Beardsley Electric Company, founded in Los Angeles by Volney S. Beardsley in 1913, produced 661 electric cars between 1914 and 1917. A typical cruising range was . One model, the "light town car," in 1916 was priced at ."Beardsley Electric Tour – April 15, 1916: The Lure of the Open Road-Californians Open the Touring Season." Electric Vehicles, June 1916, p. 163. http://sociabilityrun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Beardsley_Run_Electric_Vehicles_June_1916.pdf
Power as a service and General Vehicle To overcome the limited operating range of electric vehicles, and the lack of recharging infrastructure, an exchangeable battery service was first proposed as early as 1896. The concept was first put into practice by Hartford Electric Light Company through the GeVeCo battery service and was initially available for electric trucks. The vehicle owner purchased the vehicle from General Vehicle Company (GVC, a subsidiary of the General Electric Company) without a battery and the electricity was purchased from Hartford Electric through an exchangeable battery. The owner paid a variable charge and a monthly service fee to cover the maintenance and storage of the truck. Both vehicles and batteries were modified to facilitate a fast battery exchange. The service was provided between 1910 and 1924 and during that period covered more than 6 million miles. Beginning in 1917 a similar successful service was operated in Chicago for owners of Milburn Wagon Company cars who also could buy the vehicle without the batteries.