How the Electric Car Became a Reality - Vol.308
The birth of the electric car cannot be pinpointed to a specific person, place or time. It's actually more like a collection of certain events or breakthroughs that enabled the concept to grow into being.
The battery and the electric motor are of course obvious prerequisites. The first electric vehicles are understood by most to have initially appeared in the early 1800s. During this time various inventors, blacksmiths and motor enthusiasts throughout Europe and the United states were toying with the idea of combining an electric motor with different forms of transport chassis.
In 1890 William Morrison presented a wagon that was powered solely by an electronic unit. This entry would be considered by most to be the first marketable electric car introduced to an interested market.
The Rise and Fall of the World's First Electric Cars
As soon as personal vehicles became a feasible product around the 1800's engineers were trying to power them with electricity. The gasoline combustion engine actually came after the first attempts to build an electric mobile vehicle.
The first combustion engines were dangerous, clumsy, and took a lot of manual skill to drive, control and maintain. They were also unpleasant sounding and looking as they spat out oil, dark fumes and loud explosions. It would take some time before the gasoline engine would be refined to the level appropriate for a personal vehicle.
Electronic power units had none of these issues, and so were seen as the clear way forward. Around the late 1800's and early 1900's the electric car became popular with city dwellers, women who wanted a means to get around town, and as the rise of electricity spread recharging became less of an issue in developed areas.
This initial success was stamped out most symbolically by Henry Ford's release of the Model T in the late 1920's. A gasoline powered car that he had mass produced, so it could be sold for nearly half the price of its electronic rivals. Most would consider this the defining factor dampening the early electric car's rise in the market.
For the next 50 years, the mass produced gasoline fueled combustion engine would be the choice unit placed in nearly all automobiles produced in the global market. Electric cars would be a novelty niche product reserved for tiny independent producers, with very little demand to feed on.
Gas Shortages Bring the Spark Back for Electric Vehicles
In the early 70's, the first warning signs for the weaknesses of combustion engines showed up. Rising gasoline prices driven by shortages of fuel available to the western markets showed consumers the fragility of the industry. Dips in market demand and changing attitudes towards the cost of personal mobility drove manufacturers to explore alternative power unit designs. And during this time electric motors as a concept made a slight comeback.
General Motors presented a urban electric powered personal vehicle which is still on show at the Environmental Protection Agency, and even NASA raised the awareness and profile of electric powered automobiles by launching the battery and solar powered Rover that roamed the moon in 1971.
Despite these advances, gasoline engines still offered consumers superior power and performance advantages that proved too appealing to ignore. It would be a further couple of decades before environmental concerns would relight the electronic car flame and bring back mass demand.
Environmental Concern Being the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Electric Car
Today of course, the story has taken on new plot points. Consumers are now more environmentally conscious than ever before. Combustion engines are rapidly becoming a taboo, and the biggest manufacturers in the world are under increasing pressure to deliver hybrid and fully electric cars that breath "let's save the planet" from the decay caused by carbon spitting combustion engines.
For the immediate future it seems the electric car will slowly replace the fossil fuel burning gasoline engines that have dominated the market for decades. In 50 years time we will likely look back and wonder how we could have ever been so positively barbaric with our resources for such a long time.