EVs - A Brief History

Remember what electric cars used to be like? The slow driving, boxy-looking, small obstacles on the highway? Well, no more. The face, the looks, the style, the power, the speed, the efficiency, the performance and most importantly the technology of electric vehicles (EVs) has changed over time and now it is one of the classiest, good looking, stylish, silent, pretty fast and eco-friendly vehicles you will see on the roads today. Today’s EVs are way different and advanced than what you saw or remember from the time dating back to the mid-1900s. For starters, not even the battery is same anymore and don’t even get the debated started on the speed of the car and the efficiency of the batteries; that, and the higher prices were exactly the reason why they saw a worldwide decline in interest. Are you familiar with the ‘land speed record’? If you are then let us tell you that only one EV was able to make and maintain that record until around 1900. However, the interest levels in the EVs starting rising again as the technology got better and as some great souls started thinking about the environment. 

The first ever EV was built by… sorry we can’t tell you for sure because it is difficult to attribute the success to any one person. There were a series of simultaneous breakthroughs, that occurred in several places in the technology related to EVs, from the battery to the electric motor, it all happened in the early 1800s. There were several innovators in Hungary, the Netherlands and the USA who began experimenting with the concept of a battery-powered vehicle and created some of the first small-scale electric cars. The first crude electric carriage was built by a British gentleman named Robert Anderson in 1832. In 1834, professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker created a small-scale electric car powered by non-rechargeable primary cells. In 1890, William Morrison built the first successful electric automobile in the United States. And by 1897, most of New York’s taxis were electrically powered. In 1898, Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the sports car company Porsche, developed an electric car called the P1. He also created the world’s first hybrid electric car (powered by electricity and gasoline) around the same time. In the year 1900, electric cars accounted for around a third of all the vehicles on the road. They showed strong growth for the following 10 years. 

Porsche P1

At the turn of the 20th century, even though horse was still the primary mode of transport, people turned to the newly available motor vehicles available in steam, gasoline and electric versions; as individuals got more prosperous which led to the rise in their purchasing power. In 1914, Henry Ford partnered with Thomas Alva Edison for exploring the options of creating a low-cost electric car. This did not work out and meanwhile, Ford’s gasoline-powered Model T had started gaining more popularity by then and was made quite affordable and widely available since its introduction in 1908. By 1912, the gasoline car cost $650 and an electric one cost $1750. In the same year, Charles Kettering introduced the electric starter, eliminating the need for the hand crank and giving rise to more gasoline-powered vehicle sales. Other developments also contributed to the decline of electric vehicles on the road. For instance, the US had better-developed roads by 2020 and this led to more people going out and exploring and traveling for longer distances. Gas became cheap and readily available to the rural Americans after the discovery of Texas crude oil and more and more fuel stations started opening up. Somewhere after this point, electric vehicles lost their popularity as combustion engines became more popular. Very few Americans held electric vehicles and by 1935 they all disappeared. 

It wasn’t until the 1960s again that people started showing some interest in them. In 1959, American Motors Corporation (AMC) and Sonotone Corporation announced a joint research effort to consider producing an electric car powered by a "self-charging" battery. Many concept cars were developed but a handful made it to production and still weren’t as popular. In July 1971, an electric car developed by Boeing and Delco Electronics, a GM subsidy had the privilege of becoming the first manned vehicle to be driven on the Moon. That car was called the ‘Moon Buggy’, a Lunar Roving Vehicle which was first deployed during the Apollo 15 mission. Pretty cool right?

Moon Buggy

After years of being forgotten and out of the limelight, the energy crises of the 1970s and 1980s and the need for alternative and cleaner sources of energy led to the revival of interest in EVs. In the 1990s many companies like GM, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and others launched a series of EVs. Around the same time, in California, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the government of California's "clean air agency", began a push for more fuel-efficient, lower-emissions vehicles, with the ultimate goal being a move to zero-emissions vehicles such as electric vehicles. But the people voted against this move as they were not interested and still preferred cheaper gasoline vehicles even though they were not as efficient because the fuel was cheap. A series of revolts took place against this move especially against GM’s EV1; in an unusual move, consumers were not allowed to purchase EV1s, but were instead asked to sign closed-end leases, meaning that the cars had to be returned to GM at the end of the lease period, with no option to purchase, despite the lessee’s interest in continuing to own the cars. The suit finally led to the neutering of CARB’s move. CARB and the automobile companies had failed in effectively promoting their interest. Many car manufacturers had to withdraw their EV models from the US market.

Most EVs were and still are slow driving, not so appealing and boring cars and yes expensive too. Only the really conscious consumers were willing to make do with whatever options were available. Some others tried to go for Hybrid EVs. However, the EVs constantly faced a fluctuation in interest levels. The year 2004 was a landmark year as Tesla had begun its journey in developing its first Roadster. And there on we all know how its disruptive moves have changed the face of the EVs and people’s perception about them.