History of Electric Vehicles

The Birth of Electric Vehicles

The invention of the electric vehicle is difficult to pinpoint to one individual inventor or country. Instead it was a series of breakthroughs in the 1800s that led to the first electric vehicle on the road.

In the early part of the century, innovators in Hungary, the Netherlands and the United States began toying with the concept of a battery-powered vehicle and created some of the first small-scale electric cars. And while Robert Anderson, a British inventor, developed the first crude electric vehicle in 1832, it wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that French and English inventors built some of the first practical electric cars.

A pair of French physicists named Gaston Plante and Camille Alphonse invented and refined one of the first rechargeable batteries, and by 1881, they were efficient enough to make legitimate electric vehicles viable. The first such example came from Gustave Trouve, who attached a battery-powered motor to a Coventry Lever Tricycle, thus giving life to the first electric “car.”

Motivated in part by the negative impact of pollution in London, Thomas Parker built the world’s first production EV in 1884.

The early rise and fall of the electric car

At the turn of the 20th century, the horse was still the primary mode of transportation but as people became more prosperous, they turned to the newly invented motor vehicle to get around.

This new type of vehicle was powered by the internal combustion engine and whilst they had a lot of promise, these new fossil fuel powered cars were not without their faults.  For some people, they were difficult to operate due to the amount of effort required to change gears, the need to be started with a hand crank, not to mention the amount of noise and unpleasant exhaust fumes.

In contrast, electric cars didn’t have any of the issues associated with steam or fossil fuel. They were quiet, easy to drive and didn’t emit a smelly pollutant like the other cars of that time. Electric cars quickly became popular with urban residents, particularly women.

Many innovators at the time took note of the electric vehicle’s high demand and began to explore ways to improve the technology. For example, Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the sports car company by the same name, developed an electric car called the P1 in 1898.

Around the same time, he created the world’s first hybrid electric car.   Thomas Edison, one of the world’s most prolific inventors, thought electric vehicles were the superior technology and worked to build a better electric vehicle battery. Even Henry Ford, who was friends with Edison, partnered with Edison to explore options for a low-cost electric car in 1914.

Yet, it was Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T that dealt a blow to the electric car. Introduced in 1908, the Model T made petrol-powered cars widely available and affordable. In 1912 Charles Kettering introduced the electric starter which eliminated the need for the hand crank and gave rise to an increase in petrol-powered vehicle sales.

Fuel shortages/soaring oil prices spark interest in electric vehicles

Over the next 30 years or so, there was little advancement in the technology of electric vehicles. Cheap, abundant petrol and continued improvement in the internal combustion engine hampered demand for alternative fuel vehicles.

But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, soaring oil prices and fossil fuel shortages sparked a growing interest in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Around this time, many big and small automotive manufacturers began exploring options for alternative fuel vehicles, including electric cars.

Yet, the vehicles developed and produced in the 1970s still suffered from drawbacks compared to fossil fuel-powered cars. Electric vehicles during this time had limited performance (top speeds of 45 mph) and their typical range was limited to 40 miles before needing to be recharged.

1990s

Fast forward to the 1990s, when automotive manufacturers began modifying some of their popular vehicle models into electric vehicles. This meant that electric vehicles now achieved speeds and performance much closer to petrol and diesel-powered vehicles, and many of them had a range of 60 miles.

With a booming economy, a growing middle class and low fuel prices in the late 1990s, many consumers didn’t worry much about fuel-efficient vehicles. Even though there wasn’t much public attention to electric vehicles at this time, behind the scenes, scientists and engineers were working to improve electric vehicle technology, including batteries.

A new beginning for electric cars

The true revival of the electric vehicle didn’t happen until around the start of the 21st century.

The first turning point many have suggested was the introduction of the Toyota Prius. Released in Japan in 1997, the Prius marked the culmination of a concerted, five-year effort by Toyota Motor Corporation to develop and bring to market a practical, low-emission family vehicle.

In 2000, the Prius was released worldwide and after more than 123,000 units had been sold worldwide, production of the first-generation Prius ended in August 2003. It had been the world’s most successful hybrid vehicle; but more than that, it had conclusively proved that family cars need not be powered by petrol or diesel alone.

The other event that helped reshape electric vehicles was the announcement in 2006 that a small Silicon Valley startup, Tesla Motors, would start producing a luxury electric sports car that could go more than 200 miles on a single charge.

Tesla’s announcement and subsequent success spurred many big manufacturers to accelerate work on their own electric vehicles.

Over the next few years, other manufacturers began producing electric vehicles but consumers were still faced with one of the early problems of the electric vehicle, i.e. where to charge their vehicles on the go.

At the same time, new battery technology began hitting the market, helping to improve a plug-in electric vehicle’s range. The development of the lithium-ion battery technology has helped cut electric vehicle battery costs while simultaneously improving the performance of vehicle batteries. This in turn has helped lower the costs of electric vehicles, making them more affordable for consumers.

The future of electric cars

The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is speeding up with many disruptive areas of mobility continuing to make huge progress, despite all market challenges, including the development of:

  • extreme fast chargers (XFC) with the capability to charge at more than 400kW
  • mobile EV charging solutions to provide top-up charge to customers wherever they are
  • wireless charging technologies.

The UK government has invested significantly in Vehicle 2 Everything (V2X) trials and has also launched the Electric Nation Powered Up project to trial Vehicle 2 Grid (V2G) technology.to support its plans to ban the sale of new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK  by 2035.

In the drive to end the nation’s contribution to Climate Change by 2050, we will all see major evolutions in the transport and mobility routines that keep our lives moving.

Although only time will tell what road electric vehicles will take in the future, it’s clear that they hold a lot of potential for creating a more sustainable future.