The Pictorial Story Of The Early Electric Cars, 1880-1920

A Columbia electric car. 1899.

Electric Cars provided a very profitable business market. It served as a reliable means of saving energy, and it was only in 1859 after French physicist Gaston Planté invented the lead–acid battery vehicles, that this came to being.

Thomas Edison and an electric car in 1913.

The pioneer nations that supported the general development of electric cars were the United Kingdom and France. In 1888, Andreas Flocken, a German engineer, built the first real electric car.

Thomas Edison poses with his first electric car, the Edison Baker, and one of its batteries. 1895.

William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, developed the first electric car in the United States in 1890 – 1891. The six-passenger wagon could run at a speed of 23 kilometres per hour.

Gustave Trouvé’s tricycle (1881), was the world’s first electric car.

In 1895, after A.L. Tyler began marketing the first electric tricycles in the U.S., they began to show interest in it. At this time, the United Kingdom had actively used electric tricycles, bicycles, and cars for about 15 years.

Men ride on an electric car designed by Siemens and Halske outside of Berlin, Germany. 1882.

This interest in vehicles increased in the late 1890s and early 1900s. By the end of the 19th century, battery-powered electric taxis had become relatively common. Walter Bersey designed a fleet of these cabs and, in 1897, brought them to London.

Roger Wallace drives his electric car. 1899.

Still, in 1897, Samuel’s Electric Carriage and Wagon Company started a company that operated 12 electric hansom cabs. This company worked till 1898 and had grown to 62 cabs.

Camille Jenatzy drives his self-designed electric car near Paris, France. He was the first person to exceed 100 kilometres per hour (62 miles per hour) in a car. 1899.

As a result of the numerous advantages electric cars had, they became trendy to be used as city cars. As a result of their ease of operation, they were advertised as women’s cars. Because of the stigma that came with the perception of it being a car for women, some companies began to fix radiators in front of the vehicles.

Electric cars of the New York Edison Company line up in Manhattan. 1906.

The United States soon became the state that accepted electric cars the most, having the highest sales in the early 1910s.

An electric street sweeper cleans the roadway in Berlin, Germany. 1907.
German electric car, 1904, with the chauffeur on top.
Electric vehicles recharge at a power substation. 1909.
An advertisement for an electric car. 1910.
A Mercury Arc Rectifier Charging Set powers up an electric car in a garage in Cleveland, Ohio. 1910.
A woman uses a hand-cranked battery charger to charge her electric Columbia Mark 68 Victoria automobile. The Pope Manufacturing Company made the car in 1906 and the charger in 1912.
A Detroit Electric car drives on a mountain road between Seattle and Mount Rainier, Washington. 1920.

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