Electric Cars

An alternative fuel vehicle, electric cars are powered by an electric motor and motor controllers rather than by gasoline-powered engines. The most common electric cars utilize rechargeable batteries as a power source, which makes the cars almost silent when running and does not create pollution.

How It Works

A gasoline engine is replaced by an electric motor.
An electric motor is powered by a controller.
A controller is powered by rechargeable batteries.
Batteries are a type of electrochemical energy conversion device, which converts hydrogen and oxygen into water to produce electricity.
The by-products from an operating fuel cell or electrochemical energy conversion device are heat and water.c

Electric Car Batteries

The following is a list of usual forms of electric car batteries:

Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd)
Lead-acid
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH)
Lithium Ion (LiON)
Lithion-ion polymerc

Electric Car Timeline

1832 to 1839: The first rudimentary electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells was created by Scottish inventor Robert Anderson.

1835: Thomas Davenport of the United States built the first electric vehicle - a locomotive.

1859: The rechargeable lead-acid storage battery is invented by French physicist Gaston Plante.

1891: The first successful electric automobile in the U.S. is built by Iowan William Morrison.

1897: The Pope Manufacturing Company of Connecticut produced the first electric taxis used in New York City.

1900: Twenty-eight percent of the 4,192 cars that were produced in the United States this year were powered by electricity.

1912: The first practical electric automobile starter is invented by Charles Kettering.

1966: According to a Gallup poll, 36 million Americans were interested in electric vehicles at this point.

1972: The first full-powered, full-size hybrid vehicle is built by Victor Wouk out of a 1972 Buick Skylark.

1976: The U.S. Congress passed the Electric and Hybrid

Vehicle Research, Development and Demonstration Act to spur technological development.

1990: The Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate is passed in California, requiring two percent of the state's vehicles to have no emissions whatsoever by 1998.

1997: The Toyota Prius, the first commercially mass-produced and marketed hybrid car, is unveiled in Japan with 18,000 cars sold in its first year.

1997 to Today: Thousands of electric cars are produced by Honda, GM, Ford, Nissan, Chevy and more.c