ZAP’S FACTS!
CARS

Electric cars are actually older than gasoline cars.

The first electric car rolled out in the 1830s - decades before gasoline engines existed.

2 min read
Electric cars are actually older than gasoline cars.
THE FULL STORY

Most people think electric cars are a 21st century invention. They’re not. Scottish inventor Robert Anderson built a crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable cells sometime around 1832 - over 50 years before Karl Benz’s gasoline Motorwagen. Other electric vehicles followed throughout the 1800s.

By 1900, electric cars were everywhere. They were quiet, clean, and easy to drive - no cranking, no gears, no oily smoke. About one in three cars on American roads was electric. New York City even ran a fleet of electric taxis. Many drivers, especially women, preferred them to noisy gasoline rivals.

Then gasoline won. The Ford Model T made gas-powered cars dirt cheap, and the discovery of huge oil fields kept fuel prices low. Electric cars almost vanished for nearly a century. They only roared back in 2008 when Tesla released the Roadster, proving an electric car could be fast, cool, and drive hundreds of miles on one charge.

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