The History Of The Electric Car

Electric cars are usually driven by rechargeable battery packs but it is also possible that the electricity needed to run the vehicle is stored in an ultra capacitor or in a flywheel.

In fact, the history of the electric car can be traced back to the 1830s. It was a Scottish businessman named Robert Anderson who invented the first crude electric carriage any time between 1832 and 1839. The first small-scale electric car was designed by the Dutch Professor Sibrandus Stratingh and built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835. Just a few years later, around 1842, the American Thomas Davenport as well as the Scotsman Robert Davidson invented a more practical and successful electric road vehicle which was the first one to be driven by non-rechargeable electric cells. A good twenty years later the Frenchman Gaston Plante invented a better storage battery which was even improved by his fellow countryman Camille Faure in 1881 and therefore paved the way for electric vehicles to flourish. The first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles were France as well as Great Britain. When in November 1881 the International Exhibition of Electricity took place in Paris, the French inventor Gustave TrouvŽ presented a working three-wheeled automobile.

During the 19th century electric automobiles held a range of speed and distance records. One of the most notable of these was the breaking of the 100km/h (62 mph) barrier by Camille Jenatzy whose rocket-shaped vehicle reached a speed of 105,88 km/h (65.79 mph). This record was set shortly before the end of the century in April 1899.

In America the interest in electric vehicles was aroused after an electric tricycle and a six-passenger wagon had been built by A. L. Ryker respectively by William Morrison in 1891.These inventions were followed by many innovations and as a consequence electric vehicles became more popular in the late 1890s as well as in the early 1900s. In 1897 a fleet of New York City taxis was built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia and by doing this the first commercial application of electric vehicles was established.

In the early 20th century electric vehicles were successfully sold as city cars to American upper-class customers, especially women drivers could be acquired as customers because of the quiet, clean and easy operation of these vehicles.

After 1920 the decline of the electric car was brought about by several developments. Due to the better system of roads which now connected cities, vehicles were needed for long-distance drives. However, electric cars were not adapted for covering longer distances. Apart from that the production of the electric car was more expensive than that of the gasoline car and thanks to the discovery of Texas oil fuel went down in price so that it became affordable to the average consumer. As a result the electric car almost disappeared by the end of the 20th century.

However, on the basis of nowadays high oil prices on the one hand and a growing ecological awareness on the other hand, the electric car might stage a comeback in the 21st century.