The Electric Car Was a Missed Opportunity Over 100 Years Ago
Electric cars were popular in the early 1900s but they didn’t take hold. Will they succeed now?
Electric cars are all the rage right now. They are being aggressively promoted in virtually every industrialized country in the world. But the electric car is far from a new idea; actually, it is well over 100 years old.
The electric car was so popular in the United States in the early 20th Century that it accounted for about one-third of all vehicles on the road in 1900. Sales of electric cars continued to be strong for the next ten years. During World War I, purchasing an electric car was considered patriotic because it helped preserve valuable gasoline for the war effort. Why, then, did electric cars disappear? It is the story of an automotive revolution combined with the rise of oil companies.
An Idea Ahead of Its Time
To put the early electric car into perspective, it’s important to understand both transportation and the availability of electricity between 1850 and the turn of the century. Horse-drawn carriages were in use even with the advent of three types of early automobiles — steam, gasoline and electric. Steam cars were impractical since they required a constant supply of water and…
