History of the electric vehicle

Modern mass market all-electric passenger cars. Clockwise from upper left: Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf, and BMW i3

Crude electric carriages were first invented in the late 1820s and 1830s. Practical, commercially available electric vehicles appeared during the 1890s. An electric vehicle held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900. In the early 20th century, the high cost, low top speed, and short-range of battery electric vehicles, compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, led to a worldwide decline in their use as private motor vehicles. Electric vehicles have continued to be used for loading and freight equipment and for public transport – especially rail vehicles.

At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in electric and alternative fuel vehicles in private motor vehicles increased due to: growing concern over the problems associated with hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles, including damage to the environment caused by their emissions; the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon-based transportation infrastructure; and improvements in electric vehicle technology.

Since 2010, combined sales of all-electric cars and utility vans achieved 1 million units delivered globally in September 2016,^[1] 4.8 million electric cars in use at the end of 2019,^[2] and cumulative sales of light-duty plug-in electric cars reached the 10 million unit milestone by the end of 2020.^[3] The global ratio between annual sales of battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids went from 56:44 in 2012 to 74:26 in 2019, and fell to 69:31 in 2020.^[3][4][5] As of August 2020^[update], the fully electric Tesla Model 3 is the world's all-time best selling plug-in electric passenger car, with around 645,000 units.^[6]