Many people think only recently say in the last 10 to 15 years we have started to use electricity to power cars and that the idea of making an electric car only came about in the late 20th and early 21st century. However, you will be quite surprised to learn that idea of electric cars has actually been around way before the idea of internal combustion (ICE) cars. Electricity was originally the way forwards to power a car until the dominance of oil came along.
The electric car plays a key role in today’s society. With UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson stating that all new cars sold in 2030 and beyond will be electric (ban on new ICE vehicles) society is rapidly changing with mountains of pressure put on car manufacturers to now make their whole vehicle lineups electric. The world is changing and evolving at a rapid pace with climate change becoming more and more obvious and talked about, it is about time manufacturers take the ball and start thinking of alternate solutions to power their cars.
1828 Marked the First Step in Electric Cars
In 1828, Slovakian inventor Anyos Jedlik came up with the world’s first electric model vehicle. It was a small scale car powered by an electric motor. It was somewhat a breakthrough as it led Scottish inventor Robert Anderson to do something similar with his crude electric carriage between the years of 1832 to 1839. This was the first step forwards in electric vehicles as it showed it was possible.
However, the issue with these electric vehicles is that they were not rechargeable. It was not until 1859 that the first rechargeable battery came out. The lead-acid battery invented by French physicist Gaston Plante was a rechargeable unit that paved the way for somewhat the future of electric vehicles as we know today. The lead-acid battery was improved by Cammile Alphonse Faure in 1881by increasing the capacity of the battery and putting in mass-scale production.
1881 Gustave Trouve Makes the First Proper Electric Car
It was a breakthrough. A milestone in automotive history. French scientist Gustave Trouve came up with the electric tricycle that was powered by Plante’s new rechargeable battery attached to an improved Siemens electric motor. It was all strapped onto an English built James Stanley tricycle. On 19 April 1881, it was tested successfully along the Rue Valois in Paris which was the first-ever drive in an electric car. However, Trouve was unable to patent the vehicle.
Trouve decided then to adapt the battery-powered vehicle to marine propulsion as he wanted to make it easier to carry his marine from his workshop to the nearby River Seine.
British inventor Thomas Parker in 1895 came up with an electric 4-wheel car in 1885 known as the dog cart. Ferdinand Porsche also came up with an electric car that had motors in each wheel hub.
In America, the first electric car was built in 1890-91 by William Morrison. It was a 6 seater car which could hit speeds of 14 mph.
France and England paved the way for electric vehicles. However, some argue it was Germany’s Andreas Flocken who created the very first electric car. Either way, it seemed like a bright future for the electric car and that the ICE had no chance of succeeding as the main powertrain for the car. In the late 1890s to early 1900s, it was the golden age with London actually using them as taxis. New York had 62 electric cars used as taxis too.
Why Did Electricity Get so Unpopular
Simply because with cars now needing a longer range (which battery-powered cars couldn’t do) it was deemed that something more practical was needed. By the start of the 1920s and people traveled a lot further and further and electric cars were deemed too slow. Also, there was a huge surge in oil findings meaning that petrol became cheaper and more convenient to use. For the same price as an electric car, a gasoline-powered car could go further and go faster. Most electric car manufacturers ceased operations within the mid-1910s. Most electric cars too became unpopular with the milk-float being now the most common sighting.
Electric cars did not make a revival for years and years to come. Despite WW2 with a huge oil shortage, Europe still continued to use ICE cars just with very weird fuel mixtures. ICE cars got all the development and investment with oil being so available and so cheap. Because of the lack of investment in electric cars, any electric car launched such as the Henney Kilowatt in the 1950s was extremely expensive and had terrible performance and a woeful range.
Henry Ford’s new Model T was also an ICE powered car which dominated the world. it made gasoline so much cheaper and it was also cheaper than any electric car on sale back then.
In 1959 AMC (American Motors) planned to make an electric car that could recharge itself. It was very innovative but it never happened. Instead, AMC worked on cars like the 1968 6.2 liter AMX.
The 1990s Brought a New Wave of Interest
In the early 1990s, California Air Resources Board (CARB) stated there need to be more fuel-efficient lower emissions vehicles. Their targets were to move to vehicles that were zero-emissions. Cars like the infamous GM EV1 and the Honda EV plus were made. In fact, Toyota decided to sell its 384 units of the electric Rav4 SUV to the public. So do not think for a second the Model X was the world’s first electric SUV.
However, other electric vehicles were only leased out to the public and had to be returned to GM after the period of the lease had ended. GM offered no option to purchase. CARB was put under pressure by oil-lobbying groups who were worried about the Californian car market with the expansion of electric vehicles. Eventually, Toyota, Chrysler, and a few GM dealers sued CARB in a federal court.
The GM EV1 had a range of 161 miles which is crazy as it was 1999. After the CARB incident, most electric cars such as the G-Wiz became city cruisers and were not designed for highway journeys.
The Dawn of Tesla
In 2008 something huge happened. Tesla was founded. The first car launched by tesla was the roadster in 2007 and it really did not have any impact on the world. BMW was busy making the engines for the new 7-series, Mercedes had just launched a 6.2 muscle car, Audi was making a V12 diesel SUV, Ford was creating big V8 trucks and GM was still making terrible cars.
Yet ten years later, Tesla is on its way to controlling the car market. Twelve years from 2008 to 2020 they are the world’s most valuable car company. They are putting the likes of Mercedes, Audi, VW, BMW, GM, FCA, and Ford under huge pressure. the model 3 sedan has blown up in sales and it now really is a struggle for other companies.
Because nobody took Tesla seriously in the first years, they managed to build a whole infrastructure without any competition from elsewhere. They managed to make batteries that would do the same mileage as a car. They managed to make electric cars cost the same as an ICE Car and go even faster. Now car companies face a crisis. With more and more restrictions coming in for the ICE engine, it is getting harder for manufacturers to keep using gasoline as their energy source in their cars.
Credits for featured image via: motor1.com