Electric Cars Essay, Research Paper

In 1837 the first electric car was built in Scotland by a man named, Robert Davidson. Electric cars were being produced all over in the 1880’s when the lead acid battery was perfected. In 1892 in Chicago the first electric car was exhibited creating a new sensation for cars. The first electric racing car was built in Belgian in 1899 and was called “La Jamais Contente” (Never Satisfied), and set a world land speed record of 68 mph. The 68mph record was broken in 1902 by a gasoline powered car, and the gasoline car has keep the record ever since. In the early 1900’s the electric car was favored by women, because the car was quiet, clean, and very easy to start. In 1913 there was twenty companies producing 6,000 electric cars and trucks per year. When the electric starter came out, and Ford’s Model T in the 1930’s that virtually eliminated electric car companies. When the oil embargo came up in 1973 that brought back some talk about the electric cars. In 1977 Great Britain had 70,000 electric cars, Japan had 13,000, and the United States had 3,000 with projections of 25 million by the year 2000. Then gas prices went back down hurting the production of electric cars. In the 1980’s the electric car races started coming back in Switzerland and Australia bring back interest in the United states in the 1990’s.