The history of the electric vehicle began in the mid-19th century. An
electrical vehicle held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900s. The
high cost, low top speed and short range of electric vehicles, comparing to
later internal combustion vehicles, led to the worldwide decline in their use.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, interest in electrical and other
alternative fuel vehicles has increased due to growing concern associated with
hydrocarbon fueled vehicles that including damage to the environment caused by
their emissions and the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon-based
transportation infrastructure.
First practical
electric cars
English inventor Thomas Parker, who was
responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground,
overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite,
built the first practical production electric car in London in 1884, using his
own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries. Parker's long-held
interest in the construction of more fuel-efficient vehicles led him to experiment
with electric vehicles. He also has been concerned about the malign effects smoke and pollution in
London and tried to develop it.
France and the United Kingdom were the
first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles. The
first electric car in Germany was built by the engineer Andreas Flocken in
1888.
William Morrison of Des Moines Iowa developed
the first American electric car in 1890 to 1991; the vehicle was a
six-passenger wagon capable of reaching a speed of 14 miles per hour, which is
23 kilometer per hour. It was not until 1895 that Americans began to
devote attention to electric vehicles, after A.L. Ryker introduced the first
electric tricycles to the U.S. From that point, Europeans had been making use
of electric tricycles, bicycles, and cars for almost 15 years.
2000s to
present: Modern highway-capable electric cars
The global economic recession in the late
2000s led to increased calls for automakers to abandon fuel-inefficient SUVs,
which were a symbol of the excess that caused the recession, in favor of small
cars, hybrid cars, and electric cars. California electric carmaker Tesla Motors
began development in 2004 on the Tesla Roadster, which was first delivered to
customers in 2008. The Roadster was the first highway-capable all-electric
vehicle in serial production available in the United States. Since 2008 Tesla
has sold more than 2,100 Roadsters in 31 countries through December 2011.
The Roadster was also the first
production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production
all-electric car to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Tesla
expects to sell the Roadster until early 2012, when its supply of Lotus Elise
gliders is expected to run out, as its contract with Lotus Cars for 2,500
gliders expired at the end of 2011. Tesla stopped taking orders for the
Roadster in the U.S. market in August 2011, and the 2012 Tesla Roadster will be
sold in limited numbers only in Europe, Asia and Australia. The publishing of next
generation is expected to introduce in 2014.
References
Bellis, M. (2006), "The
Early Years", The History of Electric Vehicles, About.com,
retrieved 6 July 2006.
"World's first electric
car built by Victorian inventor in 1884", The Daily Telegraph (London),
24 April 2009.
Halwart Schrader: Flocken. In: Deutsche Autos 1885 – 1920.
First edition 2002, p. 182.
Danny King (11 January 2012).
"Tesla continues Roadster sales with tweaks in Europe, Asia and
Australia". Autoblog Green. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
"Tesla Motors Moving
Quickly to Commercialization of an Electric Car". GreenCar Magazine. 9
July 2009.
Chris Woodyard (3 August
2011). "Tesla boasts about electric car deliveries, plans for sedan".
USA Today. Retrieved 2011-10-04.
Josie Garthwaite (6 May 2011).
"Tesla Prepares for a Gap as Roadster Winds Down". The New York Times. Retrieved
2011-05-07.
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield (12
January 2012). "Tesla Updates Roadster For 2012. There’s Just One Catch...".
Green Car Reports. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
Mark Tisshaw (26 October
2011). "Tesla plans all-new Roadster". Autocar. Retrieved
2011-10-29.
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Great work. I did my blog series on Tesla and their electric cars. When gas and electric power were both starting out in the car industry (and the whole car industry was also just starting out), it was evident that gas was the cheaper and esier way to go for production, and was also far easier to maintain. It's only now that realize the cost of that early adoption. It's crazy to try and imagine where electric car technology may be at this point had we went down that road over a hundred years ago - It's interesting to note that at that same time so many people were coming to the same conclusion and 'inventing' all sorts of horse-less buggies.
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