When was the First Electric Cars developed?

If you think that electric cars are the latest technological inventions, then you are mistaken. The development of electric car technology actually began in the 19th century.

As Robert Anderson, a Scottish man and American Thomas Davenport both claim recognition as the initial creator of the electric automobile in the 1830s. A host of other innovators vie for first, including Dutch Sidbrandus Stratingh, American Christopher Becker, and Hungarian Anyos Jedlik.

1896 Riker Electric Tricycle. (Picture from: http://blog.carlist.my/)

In the 1840s, Robert Davidson and Davenport created practical electric vehicles using non-rechargeable electric cell batteries. In 1859 a Frenchman Gaston Plante find a battery that can be recharged. This discovery greatly influenced the electric car evolution afterwards.

Further developments occurred in 1865 with rechargeable lead-acid batteries, and in 1881, Frenchman Camille Faure improved the battery's design. And with two other Frenchmen engineer such as Charles Jeantaud and Nicholas Raffard, they built an electric car which is equiped with the recharged battery.

The Elwell-Parker Ltd. was formed in October, 1882 (Thomas Parker the engineer and Paul Bedford Elwell the financier) at Wolverhampton, England and made the Parker-designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries. Parker and Elwell had previously collaborated to produce one of the first accumulators. Their company soon expanded into dynamos, motors, and controllers.

1896 Electric Construction Corporation's electric dog-cart. (Picture from: http://www.electricvehiclesnews.com/)

In 1888 Elwell-Parker Ltd. agreed to consolidated with other companies to form the Electric Construction Corporation which incorporated in 1889. The company produced almost every conceivable piece of electrical equipment including alternators, dynamos, motors, accumulators, transformers, electrical switchboards, high voltage switches, voltmeter switches, arc lamps, and gas tight motors for electric pumps and electric cranes.

Electric vehicles had their heyday during the late 1800s. The opportunistic Thomas Edison fashioned a successful electric vehicle in 1889 using nickel-alkaline batteries. An electric car took the gold at the 1895 Thanksgiving Day race, setting a long-standing performance precedent, exemplified by the world land record set by the Belgian electric car, "La Jamais Contente." 

The first electric car to exceed the speed of 100 kph was referred to as "Jamais Contente" and was built in Belgium in 1899. It was equipped with Michelin tires and adopted as a torpedo. (Picture from: http://newtechnology22.blogspot.com/)

By 1890 Thomas Parker’s battery-powered trams were carrying passengers around Birmingham, England. His electrically-operated trams had been carrying passengers around Blackpool for the previous five years. He claimed to have had an electrically powered vehicle running as early as 1884 and developed many prototypes during his lifetime.

One of Thomas Parker's early electric cars. Thomas is in the middle and on the back seat is possibly his son Alfred. (Picture from: http://www.electricvehiclesnews.com/)

Although Thomas Parker left the Electric Construction Corp. to start his own company in 1894, he is credited with the design and manufacture of the 'electric dog-cart', which was built in 1896. Some of Thomas's later vehicles had hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, as well as four-wheel steering. These features are even now being described as revolutionary.

The New York city Electric Carriage Cabs in 1897. (Picture from: http://www.electricvehiclesnews.com/)

In 1897 the electric cars use starting to break into the public transport sector such as taxi which began in New York, and a post office in France began to use electric cars as their delivery transport in 1901. Those cars is produced by the Levallois Perret and has the cruising ability as far as 50 km with a maximum speed of 15 kph with a maximum capacity of 1.5 tons.

1897 Bersey electric cab, the London’s first self-propelled taxi. (Picture from: http://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/)

Thanks to some important discoveries that eventually electric cars is slowly becoming industrial commodities are starting to become part of economic activity at the time.

Thomas Edison with an electric car in 1913. (Picture from: http://www.environment911.org/)

The development of electric cars then suffered a setback due to the development of the combustion engine technology continues to evolve, at its peak in 1908 when the Ford-T car was first launched. Petrol-fueled car launch is the forerunner of today's modern automobile industry and greatly affect the car industry at the time. While the price of fuel is still cheap and the production cost of fuel cars up to two times less expensive than the electric car and made it became unpopular.

1930 Harrods electric delivery van. (Picture from: http://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/)

In contrast to the present time where the price of fuel is very expensive and the availability is becoming increasingly limited. Popularity of the electric powered cars are lifted back up and become one of the alternative energy sources of the future. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SEPTI | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 18072013]

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