1830s to 1900s: Early history

and early 1900s. In 1897, electric vehicles found their first commercial application as a fleet of electrical New York City taxis, built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia, was established. Electric cars were produced in the US by Anthony Electric, Baker, Columbia, Anderson, Edison [disambiguation needed], Studebaker, Riker, and others during the early 20th century. In 1917, the first gasoline-electric hybrid car was released by the Woods Motor Vehicle Company of Chicago. The hybrid was a commercial failure, proving to be too slow for its price, and too difficult to service.
1912 Detroit Electric advertisement

Despite their relatively slow speed, electric vehicles had a number of advantages over their early-1900s competitors. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. Changing gears on gasoline cars was the most difficult part of driving, and electric vehicles did not require gear changes. Electric cars found popularity among well-heeled customers who used them as city cars, where their limited range proved to be even less of a disadvantage. The cars were also preferred because they did not require a manual effort to start, as did gasoline cars which featured a hand crank to start the engine. Electric cars were often marketed as suitable vehicles for women drivers due to this ease of operation.
Thomas Edison and an electric car in 1913 (courtesy of the National Museum of American History)

Acceptance of electric cars was initially hampered by a lack of power infrastructure, but by 1912, many homes were wired for electricity, enabling a surge in the popularity of the cars. At the turn of the century, 40 percent of American automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline. 33,842 electric cars were registered in the United States, and America became the country where electric cars had gained the most acceptance. Sales of electric cars peaked in 1912.
[edit] 1920s to 1980s: Gasoline dominates
The low range of electric cars meant they could not make use of the new highways to travel between cities

After enjoying success at the beginning of the century, the electric car began to lose its position in the automobile market. Factors including improved road infrastructure in the 1920s and the discovery of large reserves of petroleum in Texas, Oklahoma, and California paved the way for gasoline cars to gain popularity, with their longer range and newly-affordable fuel. Electric cars were limited to urban use by their slow speed and low range, and gasoline cars were now able to travel farther and faster than equivalent electrics. Gasoline cars became ever easier to operate thanks to the invention of the electric starter by Charles Kettering in 1912, which eliminated the need of a hand crank for starting a gasoline engine, and the noise emitted by ICE cars became more bearable thanks to the use of the muffler, which had been invented by Hiram Percy Maxim in 1897. Finally, the initiation of mass production of gas-powered vehicles by Henry Ford brought prices as low as $440 in 1915 (equivalent to roughly $9,400 today). By contrast, in 1912, an electric roadster sold for $1,750 (roughly $39,000 today). By the 1920s, the heyday of electric cars had passed, and a decade later, the American electric automobile industry had effectively disappeared.[3]
The Henney Kilowatt, a 1961 production electric car

Years passed without a major revival in the use of electric cars. While ICE development progressed at a brisk pace, electric vehicle technology stagnated. In 1947, the invention of the point-contact transistor brought about the creation of modern semiconductor controls and improved batteries; this led to new possibilities for electric propulsion. Within a decade of the creation of the transistor, Henney Coachworks and the National Union Electric Company, makers of Exide batteries, formed a joint venture to produce the first modern electric car based on transistor technology, the Henney Kilowatt which was basically an electrically powered Renault Dauphine. Despite the Kilowatt's improved performance with respect to previous electric cars, consumers found it too expensive compared to equivalent gasoline cars of the time, and production ended in 1961. Even though the Kilowatt was a commercial failure, its technology paved the way for the next generation of electric vehicles. On July 31, 1971, an electric car received the unique distinction of becoming the first manned vehicle to be driven on the Moon; that car was the Lunar rover, which was first deployed during the Apollo 15 mission. The "moon buggy" was developed by Boeing and Delco Electronics, and featured a DC drive motor in each wheel, and a pair of 36-volt silver-zinc potassium hydroxide non-rechargeable batteries.