Technews

How old is the electric car?

Electric vehicles (or EVs) are the next big thing — the cars that are revolutionizing the auto industry the way hybrids did less than two decades ago. The rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is happening across the United States, slowly but surely. Some early EV models were considered experiments, sold or leased only in certain states. Plenty of people still worry that an EV won't get them where they need to go on a full charge and that charging might be complicated or inconvenient or leave them stranded. And then there's the issue of the cost: EVs are typically inexpensive to run, but buying one incurs a cost premium up front. (Some states have EV tax breaks that help, though.) No worries, the electric car advocates say, these concerns and complications are typical of new technology.

The funny thing is that electric cars aren't new technology. They go back to the days of, well, the car. Maybe not quite that far back, but pretty close. Early prototypes of electric cars actually date back to the early 1800s, coinciding somewhat with the development of the electric motor and the battery. Engineers in the United States and throughout Europe made plenty of progress, but it took a while for manufacturers to gather momentum.