The electric car did not begin in 2008. It beat gasoline to 100 km/h, outsold it in America, then vanished for eighty years. Here is the whole arc.
Gustave Trouve bolted rechargeable cells and a small motor to a British tricycle and rode it through Paris at 12 km/h. It is the first electric vehicle historians agree on.
Andreas Flocken built the Elektrowagen in Coburg, Germany. It weighed 400 kg, managed 15 km/h, and is widely counted as the first electric production car.
Camille Jenatzy drove his torpedo-shaped Jamais Contente to 105.88 km/h near Paris. The first car ever to break 100 km/h ran on batteries, not petrol.
Of American cars that year, roughly 40% were steam, 38% electric and only 22% gasoline. Electrics were quiet, clean, and needed no crank, so cities preferred them.
Cadillac fitted Charles Kettering's electric self-starter. Gasoline's worst flaw, the hand crank, disappeared overnight, and cheap Model Ts undercut electrics on price.
Apollo 15 unfolded the Lunar Roving Vehicle from the lander's side. Astronauts drove 27.8 km on silver-zinc batteries that could never be recharged out there.
The EV1 was the first purpose-built modern electric car from a major automaker. GM only leased it, never sold it, and crushed most of the fleet when the programme closed.
Toyota launched the Prius in Japan, the first mass-produced hybrid. It kept electric drive alive in ordinary showrooms through the decade nobody was asking for it.
The Tesla Roadster put a lithium-ion pack in a sports car and cleared 200 miles per charge. For the first time in a century, range stopped being the reason to say no.
Electric cars passed 20 million sales in 2025, about one in four new cars worldwide. The technology did not arrive. It came back.