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The electric car was among some of the earliest automobiles — small electric vehicles predate the Otto cycle upon which Diesel (diesel engine) and Benz (gasoline engine) based the automobile. Between 1832 and 1839 (the exact year is uncertain), Scottish businessman Robert Anderson invented the first crude electric carriage. Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands, designed the small-scale electric car, built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835.[3]

The improvement of the storage battery, by Frenchmen Gaston Plante in 1865 and Camille Faure in 1881, paved the way for electric vehicles to flourish. An electric-powered two-wheel cycle was demonstrated at the World Exhibition 1867 in Paris by the Austrian inventor Franz Kravogl. France and Great Britain were the first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles.[4] In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.[5]

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The first electric motor using electromagnets for both stationary and rotating parts was demonstrated by Ányos Jedlik in 1828, who later developed a motor powerful enough to propel a vehicle. The first commutator-type direct-current electric motor capable of a practical application was invented by the British scientist William Sturgeon in 1832. Following Sturgeon's work, a commutator-type direct-current electric motor made with the intention of commercial use was built by the American Thomas Davenport and patented in 1837. Although several of these motors were built and used to operate equipment such as a printing press, due to the high cost of primary battery power, the motors were commercially unsuccessful and Davenport went bankrupt. Several inventors followed Sturgeon in the development of DC motors but all encountered the same cost issues with primary battery power. No electricity distribution had been developed at the time. Like Sturgeon's motor, there was no practical commercial market for these motors.

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The first electric motor using electromagnets for both stationary and rotating parts was demonstrated by Ányos Jedlik in 1828, who later developed a motor powerful enough to propel a vehicle.

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johnm214 said:
He was killed by the petroleum companies that forsaw the huge demand oil-based engines would demand.  They killed him to protect the market, and that's why we don't have electric spaceships now.

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