The first electric car was perhaps the one built by Robert Davidson of Scotland in 1837. Later, during the 1880s and 1890s, many electric cars were built and sold in Europe and the United States. In fact, there were more electric cars than gasoline-powered automobiles in America during the late 1890s.

One of the first Americans to market a successful electric car was William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. Morrison began his production about 1890. In 1898, the carriage makers Bailey and Company of Amesbury, Massachusetts, fitted one of their carriages with an electric motor. Unfortunately, the batteries they used made the carriage too heavy to be moved by the motor. S. R. Bailey and his son Edwin continued to refine their electric carriage, and, in 1908, they introduced their first practical model which could travel about 50 miles (80 km) before it needed to be recharged. About five years later, the...