History of the Electric Car

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The electric car was born twice and withdrawn twice; only when NiMH patents were consolidated in a single hand was the road reopened, this time with lithium-ion.

Pre-Tesla: Hybrids and the RAV4 EV - Why Electricity Left Early?

Deniz Erkan17 October 2026

In the pre-Tesla era, the electric car came to life twice and was withdrawn twice: California's zero-emission mandate gave birth to fully electric pioneers like Toyota's RAV4 EV and Honda's EV Plus , while the rise of hybrid technology and the consol…

A century ago, the electric car survived thanks to its easy cranking, which made it marketable to women, but that same image trapped it in a narrow niche.

Why Were the First Electric Cars Marketed with Women Drivers in Mind?

Deniz Erkan17 October 2026

The question that determined the fate of the electric car early on was not "why" but "who." Features such as easy starting and quiet, clean operation turned the vehicle into a product marketed to women a century ago; this strategy kept manufacturers …

In 1900, 28 percent of vehicles on US roads were electric; gasoline cars were still the minority and the future was seen in electricity.

How Did Electric Cars Run on the Streets of the 19th Century?

Deniz Erkan16 October 2026

In the late 19th century, the electric car was a mature technology, racing on the same roads as gasoline vehicles and often finding a far wider market than them. As of 1900, about 28 percent of vehicles on the road in the United States were electric;…

Neither an oil conspiracy nor a tragic fire killed Ford and Edison's electric car; it was the intersection of the high internal resistance in Edison's battery and Ford's stubbornness.

Ford and Edison's Abandoned Electric Car Dream

Deniz Erkan15 October 2026

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison signed on to a joint project in the early 1910s to develop a cheap and practical electric car; the vehicle made it as far as the prototype stage, but never went into production. Behind the project's failure lies neither a…

The first land vehicle to break the 100 km/h barrier in 1899 was not gasoline-powered, but the electric La Jamais Contente, and the record holder was Belgian engineer Camille Jenatzy.

Faster Than Petrol: La Jamais Contente and Electricity's Early Triumph

Deniz Erkan15 October 2026

The first land vehicle to exceed the 100 km/h barrier was not gasoline-powered, but electric: La Jamais Contente, driven by Belgian engineer Camille Jenatzy, on April 29, 1899 at Achères near Paris reached a certified speed of 105.882 km/h . This cig…

In 1900, 28 percent of cars in the US were electric; the lithium-ion battery finally reversed gasoline's century-long victory.

How the Lithium-Ion Battery Brought the Electric Car Back?

Deniz Erkan14 October 2026

The lithium-ion battery, with its high energy density and falling costs, is the battery chemistry that solved the electric car's century-old range and weight problem, making the modern electric vehicle technically possible. This article tells the sto…

When the oil crisis ended, the CitiCar's 64-kilometer range faded from consumers' memories faster than the price of gasoline.

Forgotten in the Gasoline Era: Why Didn't the Electric Cars of the '70s Catch On?

Deniz Erkan12 October 2026

Why didn't the electric cars of the 1970s catch on? The short answer: the temporary nature of the oil crisis, the physical ceiling of lead-acid batteries, and the safety/quality gap all kicked in at once. Vehicles like the CitiCar paired a sound idea…

In 1899, an electric taxi went down in history in the noiseless silence of the first cars to cheerfully leave behind an electric taxi in New York.

The Forgotten First Golden Age of Electric Taxis

Deniz Erkan12 October 2026

Electric taxis operating on the streets of New York in 1897 formed the first great fleet of electric transportation, even before automobiles with internal combustion engines. These vehicles on Broadway, whose batteries could be swapped in three minut…

The story of the electric car's second birth, on the road from the tragic end of the EV1 to the Tesla Roadster.

From EV1 to Roadster: The Second Birth of the Electric Car

Deniz Erkan11 October 2026

The modern history of the electric car lives between two poles: the EV1, of which General Motors produced 1,117 units, never sold, and ultimately destroyed by crushing its entire fleet, and the EV1; and the 2008 Tesla Roadster, which traveled 244 mil…

At the beginning of the 1900s, America's best-selling car was electric; gasoline won not through a single invention, but through the chance convergence of infrastructure, oil, and mass production all at the same time.

Why Did Gasoline Win in the First Century of the Electric Car?

Deniz Erkan11 October 2026

The history of the electric car is a far older and far more dramatic story than most people assume. At the turn of the twentieth century, electric vehicles were the best-selling cars in America; gasoline engines were seen as shuddering, smelly altern…