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