The 1st electric car is variously credited to either the Jedlik electric car in 1828, or an 1834 car by Thomas Davenport. Davenport is generally credited with the first practical EV, though neither car was produced. Electric cars as we recognize them would be produced some 50 years later in the 1880s.
One big technical problem: Early electric cars had a really short range since the first batteries were not rechargeable. The first rechargeable batteries came along 25 years later in 1859. By 1881 batteries were portable enough to be used in electric vehicles. Three wheel EVs were popular in Europe, and by 1891, the Morrison electric vehicle was being built in the US. Other manufacturers like Baker, Columbia, Detroit Electric, and Riker followed.
By 1895 EVs had become quite popular in the USA. In 1897, electric vehicles found their first commercial application. A fleet of electrical New York City taxis, built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia, was established. By 1900 thousands of EVs by many companies were being produced in numbers greater than gas powered rigs.
The electric sage, Thomas Edison, built 3 nickel-iron powered electric cars back in 1912. The top speed was 25 mph, and the price twice that of gas powered models of the day. Today the one remaining Edison car has sold at auction for some $1.6 million US.
There are a number of EV firsts. A few highlights:
The first auto race in the USA was won by an electric car. The first car dealer sold electric cars in 1896. The next year, the electric car was the first with power steering. Electric Torpedo's held several firsts in top speed. The first woman to buy a car bought an electric car in 1898. A few years later in 1903 the 1st electric car in the US earned the first speeding ticket. Then in 1908 the first lady of mass production, Clara Ford, declared that her electric car “never fails me”.
Of course electric cars have always been first in simplicity and last in pollution. These days, EVs are often first off the line!
