The first EVs
Few people realize that successful electric automobiles were being produced as early as the 1880's. For over 20 years, electric cars were commercially produced, and were for some years in heady competition with internal combustion and steam-powered carriages. Not until internal combustion technology and promotion, along with cheap fuel, had outstripped all competition, did electric cars drop out of the automotive picture.

The technology required for the electric car was being developed long before the automobile was conceived. The primary cell, invented by Volta in 1800, generated electricity by chemical action. Only replacing the active elements could recharge this primitive battery. Not until 1860, when Gaston Faure invented the secondary cell, could simply passing a current through it recharge a battery providing portable, renewable electric power.

In spite of earlier experimental work, a working electric motor was not built until 1833. Thomas Davenport, an uneducated Vermont blacksmith, conceived it after observing a demonstration of an electromagnet. Davenport patented his motor in 1837.

Davenport had in fact built a model electric locomotive as early as 1834, powered by primary cells. In 1847, Moses Farmer, from Massachusetts designed a locomotive that, powered by 48 one-pint cells, could carry two people along an 18-inch-wide track.

About the same time, Professor Charles Page of Washington, D.C., built a locomotive which, using 100 cells and a 16-horsepower motor, carried twelve people on the Washington and Bladensburg Railroad at up to 19 mph. In 1847, Lilly and Colton of Pittsburgh built a locomotive, which received its power, produced from a central station, through an electrified rail.

In 1888, electric cars suddenly began appearing on the scene both in the U.S. and in other countries. The first really successful electric automobile was the carriage built by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, in 1890. Morrison's car used high, spoked wagon wheels to negotiate the rutted roads of America, and an innovative guidance system, which included patented rack-and-pinion steering.

Morrison's car was capable of running for 13 consecutive hours at 14 mph. Much of the car's success, however, was attributable to the promotional efforts of Harold Sturges, secretary of the American Battery Company.