What was the first electric car? (a priest is also among the pioneers)

Currently, the automotive industry has made many advances: there are more alternative energy sources, intelligent vehicles are tested and the electric cars are trendy. But they are not new technology.

Even before the use of fuel became widespread, it had already been experimenting for more than a century with electrified vehicles: cars, trains, trams, cable cars, etc.

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By the first years of the 20th century, there were already 33,842 electric cars registered in the United States, according to a report by El Motor, although the vehicle fleet was much smaller at that time.

This growth was achieved thanks to the first rechargeable lead-acid batteries, created by the Frenchman Gaston Planté and improved at the end of the 19th century by Camille Alphonse Faure.

And it is that electricity as a means of transport was a novelty. Even in Peru, where the electric tram was first experimented with. “It was a revolution because there was no really mass transportation. It was transport by wagons or on foot. There was a lot of expectation, also because it was a modern system”, commented the historian Marco Antonio Capristan, in a report by Trade.

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Electromobility pioneer

There are many researchers who have worked with electricity, which is one of the most revolutionary inventions in history. And among all the names, that of a Hungarian priest stands out: Ányos Jedlik.

Portrait of the priest Ányos Jedlik, one of the pioneers in electromobility. (Image: ecocatolico.org)

“Jedlik created a small car model powered by an electric motor around 1828. That year he also developed the first electric motor with the three main components: Stator, Commutator and Rotor,” says the EcoCatólico media.

After the priest’s proposal, Thomas Davenport presented a new model in 1838 and the following vehicles appeared with the development of batteries.

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The first electric cars

So when did the first electric car appear? As detailed in the El Motor report, the first mass-produced automobile appeared in London in 1884, at the hands of Thomas Parker, who was in charge of electrifying cities such as Liverpool and Birmingham.

This engraving portrays the bullet-shaped electric vehicle that exceeded 100km/h. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The turn of the century followed and the vehicles reached better speed. This is the case of the bullet-shaped vehicle ‘Jamais Contente’, by Camille Jenatzy. In 1899 it reached the speed of 105.88 km/h. Later, this technology coexisted with combustion vehicles.

Even until the middle of the last century, electric vehicles were part of taxi fleets. Eighty years ago in Barcelona, ​​Spain, these cars worked with a battery exchange system (very similar to what is being applied now).

Source: Elcomercio