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====Early History====
Robert Anderson, a British inventor, is often credited with building the first electric carriage, which was built in the 1830s. It is not clear when this exactly happened, but it occurred sometime around 1832-1839. Similar efforts around that time occurred in the Netherlands and Hungary, where there was a lot of interest in developing transport using electricity. This included work by Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, Holland and the Hungarian inventor Ányos Jedlik. These early vehicles were effectively carriages that could move a short distance on some electric charge and be steered by a large stick-like device. Effectively, many of the first cars were electric, as people experimented with different ways to power them.<ref>For more on the early history of electric cars, see: Burton, N. (2013). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5FOJIG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D5FOJIG&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=900f681ed55e36bf743aa26d71641b76 A history of electric cars]</i>. The Crowood Press Lt </ref>
The first more practical electric vehicle which we can call a type of car occurred in 1842, developed by Thomas Davenport and Robert Anderson. These represented vehicles that could now move through better steering and were comparable to some of the early carriage cars around this period. One practical problem was that these cars did not have batteries, which meant they could not go very far. That problem was already solved in 1865, where Gaston Plante from France created the first rechargeable lead-acid batteries. As interest in the automobile began to surge in the 1880s, electric cars were seen as the key way in which vehicles would navigate roads. This led to further developments in battery technologies and by 1881 electric cars could more reliably navigate for some distance between charges and became practical in cities. Electric cars were among the first cars created by early car manufacturers that emerged, including famous brands such as Mercedes.<ref>For more on how early electric cars were powered and developed, see: Linde, A. (2010). <i>Electric cars - the future is now!: your guide to the cars you can buy now and what the future hold</i>s. Dorchester: Veloce Publishing Limited, pg. 92. </ref>
In 1897, New York decided to make their taxi fleet electric through cars created by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. Many cities in Europe and the United States began using electric vehicles as a form of public transit (Figure 1). By 1898, land speed records of over 68 mph were set by electric cars. Electric cars were still at this stage seen as likely dominating the increasingly growing car market. By 1900, about 30 percent of all cars were electric.
Already in 1899, however, people realised that gasoline gave a longer range. Hybrid vehicles began to be created to combine the benefits of electric cars with gasoline powered vehicles. Nevertheless, by this point, journeys in vehicles were usually short distances and trains still typically carried people over longer distances. Oil was exploited but not widely distributed yet. This gave the electric car an advantage in costs and generally electric cars were easier to operate than their gasoline cousins, requiring no starting crank and constant gear shifting. <ref>For more on the growth and expansion of electric cars in the late 1800s and early 1900s, see: Anderson, C. D., & Anderson, J. (2010). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048ELGX4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0048ELGX4&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=84f22c0e52565f1addd0f8273f01c402 Electric and hybrid cars: a history ] (2nd ed)</i>. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, pg. 111 </ref>
====Later Developments====
====Summary====
Early cars were more easily operated as electric vehicles, as many 19th century automobiles were cumbersome, dirty, noisy, and less preferred by consumers. That changed by the 1910s, resulting in the near death of electric vehicles. When research once again picked up in the 1970s, electric cars were not much better in range than their 1890s-1900s peers. It was only since the 1990s, and particularly the effect of the Prius, that began to increase interest in electric vehicles and those with alternative fuels. Today, some countries in Europe have begun to introduce eventual bans on all gasoline vehicles at a future date. This might now be a major lifeline given to more rapid development of electric vehicles.
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