Electric Vehicles have been around since the late 1890s, and outsold petrol engines ten to one (Wikipedia, Electric Vehicles, 2007). Companies such as Studebaker and Oldsmobile started out producing electric vehicles before later moving onto petrol engines. These vehicles were hand assembled, and when Ford introduced mass production, only the largest of the companies could afford to keep in competition.

These electric cars became so popular as they were much smoother than vibrating petrol engined vehicles. There was no effort involved in starting the car, unlike the hand cranking required of the combustion engine. Also there was no gear changing involved, which was one of the hardest things about driving a petrol combustion engined vehicle. Although there were so many advantages of the electric vehicle over the petrol engine, these would soon be figured out and combustion engines would then kill the electric car.

In 1902 the Woods Phaeton was basically an electrically powered horse carriage, with a range of 18 miles, a top speed of 14 miles per hour and sold for $2000. Most electric vehicles though sold for under $1000 and were large luxurious carriages designed for the upper class. By 1910 the electric vehicle averaged $3000, and production hit its peak in 1912, while still succesfully selling up until the 1920s.

The decline though began in the 1920s as the United States were building better roads connecting cities, this required longer range transport vehicles, something that the electric vehicle couldnt provide. Oil prices had also begun to drop from the discovery of crude oil in Texas, the high cost of petrol was another contributing factor to the rise of electric vehicles. The invention of the electric starter motor also helped kill electric cars, as there was now no need for hand cranking. As mentioned earlier, with the introduction of mass production by Ford, the cost of petrol vehicles compared to electric vehicles was quite significant. Henry Ford brought the price of a petrol car down to around $650 while an electric equivalent was priced at $1750.