Brief History Of The Electric Car

My friend, Citizen Shay, sent me a link to this advertisement from 1960.  When I first saw it, my initial reaction was how much it reminded me of the current ZAP cars in production - just without the zebra stripes.  My second reaction - WTF?  Why is it 2008 and this is all the farther we are? I know why - because the oil companies give the politicians too much cash.  That and there aren’t any filling stations for an electric car.  Look - I know that electric cars have been around since the inception of automobiles - even hybrid gas/electric vehicles have been around since the beginning.  So I looked for the first electric car and came across a timeline from PBS from the documentary “Who Killed The Electric Car?“  Here are some touch points that stood out to me.

• 1891 - First successful electric car built in the US
• 1897 - Electric taxis are on the streets of NYC
• 1900 - 1/3 of all cars are electric
• 1920 - Electric cars tank.  Gas is easily available and cars can go much farther on gas.
• 1966 - Congress introduces first bills recommending electric cars to reduce air pollution
• 1975 - USPS buys 350 electric Jeeps
• 1997- Toyota introduces the Prius
• 2003 - GM takes back all leased EV1 vehicles and crushes them
• 2007 - Chevy says it will produce a PHEV, The Volt

Source: PBS

Who Killed The Electric Car? Trailer