Many people, (including myself)
have been under the mistaken impression that electric cars are a new experimental
development in the auto industry—a car of the future. However this is not the
case. Electric cars have been around since 1835 when an American named Thomas
Davenport created the world’s first small locomotive for public consumption.
The first electric vehicle was an electric carriage created by a Scottish inventor
named Robert Anderson, but it wasn’t very practical. The above photo is an ad
for one of his later models—the Detroit Electric, with various models in
production from 1907-1939. By this time (1859), rechargeable batteries had been
developed. The first vehicles were not so practical as to be used on a regular
basis, due to the need to replace the batteries after their energy was
exhausted.
