Electric cars have long been the dream of many. But it wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century that electric cars became affordable to the masses. This is partly because they are significantly more expensive and partly because a lot of people were also keen on driving their own car rather than driving around in a horse carriage/horseless streetcar.

Since then, we haven’t seen much innovation in this area.

However, advances in battery technology over the last few years have led to significant improvements in range and energy efficiency (a result of advances in both the manufacturing technologies, materials and components used to make electric vehicles.)

These advances are now starting to become a reality for mass production, which means EVs will become more affordable by 2022

History of Electric Cars

The first electric cars or EVs were designed by Robert Anderson from the United States in the year 1897. The initial purpose was to replace horse carriages or the horseless streetcars for human transport.

The EV was patented by Robert Anderson, who later became known as “the father of the electric car”, in 1897.

In 1904, Thomas Alva Edison invented a vehicle that could drive on electricity. However, he did not obtain permission from Robert Anderson to use his invention and even publicly criticised Anderson’s work as inefficient and uneconomical.

In 1905, a young American named Percy Boyden used an electric car to ferry a group of friends from Iowa to Kansas City where they would catch a train back to Iowa. He became known as “the first busboy in an electric car”.

In 1906, Boyden ran his electric car for two hours with one passenger aboard and was able to cover a distance of approximately 7 miles (11 km) before reaching his destination (about half the distance between Chicago and Kansas City). In 1937, Walter Liedtke received a patent on an EV which enabled him to travel around 50 miles (80 km) at speeds of up to 56 mph (90 km/h).

In 1909, Major Eugene Willard McComb used an EV while driving throughout America on his route from New York City to Salt Lake City using it every day. His route included some stretches that would take him through areas where he would have to cross rail lines and power lines that were not electrified until long after he ceased driving his EV in 1909. In 1924, Walter Liedtke presented an idea for creating a larger EV that could deliver up to 40 passengers over distances up to 200 miles (322 km). This idea was rejected by Ford but eventually accepted by General Motors who subsequently built their own prototypeEV in 1935 which also went into production.

Later in 1935, Walter Liedtke presented another idea for creating an electrically powered vehicle where the battery would be mounted underneath the chassis instead of inside it: this idea was rejected by Ford but accepted by General Motors who subsequently built their own prototypeEV in 1937 which also went into production during WW2 when they needed all available resources towards producing heavy tanks like V-12 Sherman tanks and Patton tank-like vehicles like AVREs (Armored Vehicle Reactive Engine).

Advantages of Electric Cars

Plugged in charger into an electric car at charge station

While most of the use cases for electric cars are in the realm of transportation, they have also seen an increasing range of application in other areas. One such application is automobile insurance. Car insurance basically covers the cost of auto accidents and various other damages incurred after a car accident.

The problem with auto insurance is that they are not very diversified, thus it can be difficult to find coverage for all types of cars, especially when you don’t know what type it is.

Electric cars have some advantages over regular cars:

• No need to pay for car insurance when you sell your car on ebay or someone else’s website (eBay, Craigslist)

• No need to pay for maintenance and repair when you drive your electric car (just like regular ones)

• Less chance of getting into an accident because your vehicle will be less likely to run into trees or bushes (electric vehicles are more fuel-efficient than traditional ones)

And there are different types of electric cars: plug-in hybrids which use electricity from a wall socket, pure battery hybrids which have their own internal combustion engine and zero emissions hybrids which use compressed natural gas only and don’t require charging up the vehicle at all. The most common models are Toyota Prius hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class Plug In Hybrid .

Disadvantages of Electric Cars

There are many advantages to owning an electric car, but there are also disadvantages to owning one. The main ones include:

• generating no carbon emissions

• solving the problem of global warming (the only thing that really matters)

Unfortunately, these advantages and disadvantages don’t break down neatly and the trade-offs between them need to be thought about carefully prior to purchase.

Here are some of the more general considerations that any potential buyer should make before buying a new car:

• How much will I use it? What will I do with it?

• How much can I afford? How much do I want to spend?

• What kind of battery will I get? Are there any alternatives? Is it worth spending extra for a lower cost battery versus buying a bigger vehicle?

• Can I afford not having to pay for maintenance costs and insurance etc.?

In addition, when choosing an electric vehicle we should be careful about what we buy in the first place, or we may end up spending more money on our car than we expected. If you buy an electric car expecting it to be cheaper than your current petrol/diesel car then you may end up paying more over time, if you choose a fuel efficient vehicle instead.

Conclusion

Having driven a few electric cars, I can vouch for the fact that they are not exactly race cars. They are not even close to race cars; they are much more like your everyday car.

When you take a step back from the expected performance of an electric car and look at the actual vehicle, it is hard to find any other car that can match its performance in any way. It is not even close in terms of acceleration and top speed. And it is very, very expensive (at least compared to other cars).

That being said, electric vehicles or EVs as they are popularly known as have tremendous benefits over the fossil fuel-burning models: in terms of cost, maintenance and fuel efficiency.

Most importantly though is their ability to power your home (or at least make you travel further on one charge). This is true because EVs or EVs as they are popularly known, just do not require gasoline at all. So if you don’t need gasoline to run your car then you don’t need a gas station either.

The benefits go far beyond this though: while we will cover some of these below, but here are some examples:

• Cost – there is no fuel cost at all for an EV; on top of that you also get a tax deduction for the purchase price with many states providing a tax credit for the buying price too. If this was not enough, most states offer tax credits for improvements (such as charging stations) so even if your home doesn’t need these stations yet and you don’t want them yet, there will be no problem with paying taxes on them later (and also enjoying a tax deduction too). That makes it cheaper than almost anything else out there

• Maintaining – an EV has less maintenance and repair costs than most combustion engine cars; which means when you do take it down to the service center they won’t be fixing things that could be easily fixed by yourself instead of hiring someone (which will cost time) or spending money on things that most people don’t care about now but might later (which will likely bring down ROI)  — this saves lots of time.