• DOI:10.1109/HISTELCON.2012.6487583
• Corpus ID: 37828220

Looking back to electric cars

@article{Guarnieri2012LookingBT,
  title={Looking back to electric cars},
  author={Massimo Guarnieri},
  journal={2012 Third IEEE HISTory of ELectro-technology CONference (HISTELCON)},
  year={2012},
  pages={1-6}
}

• M. Guarnieri
• Published 1 September 2012
• History
• 2012 Third IEEE HISTory of ELectro-technology CONference (HISTELCON)

Very early experimental electric cars appeared just after electromagnetism was discovered, in 1820. During the nineteenth century they underwent improvements, staying in advance of internal combustion engines. A breakthrough came with the inventions of the rechargeable battery and of powerful and efficient electric motors, around 1870. Electrics peaked around the turn of the century, when they hold 38% of the automobile market in the US, compared with 40% of steam and 22% internal combustion. Their decline started in the second decade of the twentieth century when the internal combustion engine had a major boost, thanks to important advancements in the infrastructure, product and production technologies.