Some 'Electric' Vehicle History
Electric Cars go back as far as to the early 1830s (the exact year is unknown). Scottish Robert Anderson invented an electric driven carriage. In the same years a small electric car was built in Holland. Electric vehicle inventions followed. Americans, Scottish and French started using electrical cells for storage and an improved-capacity storage battery helped electric vehicles to become more practical. During the late 1800s France and Great Britain were the first to support the further development of electric vehicles. "La Jamais Contente" a Belgian built electric racing car set a world record for land speed nearly a 110km/h - in 1899.
Even before the 20th century began the first commercial fleet of electric driven taxis in New York City was built. Electrified carriages having a range of around 28km/h and 18km/h fast.
The first hybrid car with built in combustion engine and an e-motor occured 1916.
The years arround 1900 were The years of electric cars in America out-selling all other types of vehicles as they had many advantages such as not having the vibration, noise and smell created by petrol driven cars. Whilst electric vehicles did not require a gearbox at all, this was the most difficult piece of technology in petrol cars.
After a successful start ranging into the 1920s. The discovery of crude oil in Texas and the resulting availability of cheap petrol in combination with Ransom Olds' and some years later Henry Ford's mass production of cheap petrol cars changed this situation and the society drastically and paved the way for a mobility at the cost of the environmental disaster the combustion engine would cause in the century to come.