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====Early History====
Robert Anderson, a British inventor, is often credited with building the first electric carriage built in the 1830s. It is not clear when this exactly happened, but it occurred sometime around 1832-1839. Similar efforts around that time occurred in the Netherlands and Hungary, where there was a lot of interest in developing transport using electricity. This included work by Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, Holland, and the Hungarian inventor Ányos Jedlik. These early vehicles were effectively carriages that could move a short distance on some electric charge and be steered by a large stick-like device. Effectively, many of the first cars were electric, as people experimented with different ways to power them.<ref>For more on the early history of electric cars, see: Burton, N. (2013). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5FOJIG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D5FOJIG&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=900f681ed55e36bf743aa26d71641b76 A history of electric cars]</i>. The Crowood Press Lt </ref>
These early vehicles were effectively carriages that could move a short distance on some electric charge and be steered by a large stick-like device. Effectively, many of the first cars were electric, as people experimented with different ways to power them.<ref>For more on the early history of electric cars, see: Burton, N. (2013). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5FOJIG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D5FOJIG&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=900f681ed55e36bf743aa26d71641b76 A history of electric cars]</i>. The Crowood Press Lt </ref> The first more practical electric vehicle, which we can call a type of car, occurred in 1842, developed by Thomas Davenport and Robert Anderson. These represented vehicles that could now move through better steering were comparable to some of the early carriage cars around this period. One practical problem was that these cars did not have batteries, which meant they could not go very far. That problem was already solved in 1865, where Gaston Plante from France created the first rechargeable lead-acid batteries. As interest in the automobile began to surge in the 1880s, electric cars were seen as the keyway in which vehicles would navigate roads. This led to further developments in battery technologies, and by 1881, electric cars could more reliably navigate for some distance between charges and became practical in cities. Electric cars were among the first cars created by early car manufacturers that emerged, including famous brands such as Mercedes.<ref>For more on how early electric cars were powered and developed, see: Linde, A. (2010). <i>Electric cars - the future is now!: your guide to the cars you can buy now and what the future holds </i>s. Dorchester: Veloce Publishing Limited, pg. 92. </ref>
In 1897, New York decided to make their taxi fleet electric through cars created by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. Many cities in Europe and the United States began using electric vehicles to form public transit (Figure 1). By 1898, land speed records of over 68 mph were set by electric cars. Electric cars were still at this stage seen as likely dominating the increasingly growing car market. By 1900, about 30 percent of all cars were electric.