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An electric automobile is a vehicle powered by one or more electric motors and powered by energy stored in rechargeable batteries. Electric automobiles are quieter, emit no exhaust, and have fewer overall pollutants than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Due to lower fuel and maintenance costs, the total cost of ownership of modern EVs in the United States is cheaper than that of identical ICE cars by 2020.
Electric vehicles can be charged at a variety of charging stations, which can be found in both private homes and public spaces. Several nations have implemented government incentives such as tax credits, subsidies, and other non-monetary incentives for plug-in electric automobiles. Several governments have mandated the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles, and California, one of the world's major automotive markets, has issued an executive order prohibiting the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
In the 1880s, the first practical electric cars were built. Gustave Trouvé debuted an electric car at the Paris Exposition Internationale d'Électricité in November 1881. Thomas Parker created a viable production electric car in Wolverhampton in 1884, more than 20 years before the Ford Model T, using his own specially constructed high-capacity rechargeable batteries, albeit the only record is a photograph from 1895.
The Flocken Elektrowagen, designed by German inventor Andreas Flocken in 1888, is widely considered to be the first true electric vehicle. Electric cars were one of the most popular modes of automobile power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, offering a level of comfort and ease of operation that gasoline automobiles could not match. At the turn of the century, the electric vehicle stock peaked at around 30,000 automobiles.
Electric cars were initially used commercially as taxis in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1897. At a time when taxis were horse-drawn, Walter Bersey's electric taxis were the first self-propelled vehicles for rent in London. A fleet of twelve hansom cabs and one brougham based on the Electrobat II's design was part of a project supported in part by the Electric Storage Battery Company of Philadelphia in New York City.
Anthony Electric, Baker, Columbia, Anderson, Edison, Riker, Milburn, Bailey Electric, Detroit Electric, and others were among the major producers of electric vehicles in the United States during the twentieth century. Unlike gasoline-powered automobiles, electric vehicles were quieter and did not require shifting gears. In the nineteenth century, six electric cars held the land speed record.
The latest of them was Camille Jenatzy's rocket-shaped La Jamais Contente, which broke the 100 km/h (62 mph) speed barrier on April 29, 1899, with a high speed of 105.88 km/h (65.79 mph). Electric cars were popular until advancements in internal combustion engine (ICE) cars (electric starters in particular) and mass manufacture of less expensive gasoline (gasoline) and diesel vehicles led to a downturn. The popularity of ICE cars grew as a result of their substantially faster refuelling times and lower production costs. The advent of the electric starter motor in 1912, which superseded older, often tedious, means of starting the ICE, such as hand-cracking, was a watershed moment.
