AddThisElectric cars: A Timeline
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1835
Vermont inventor Thomas Davenport builds America’s first electric car.
1920
Smog is born: For the first time since cars hit the road, gas engines beat out electric and steam power.
1987
The sun shines when GM’s solar-powered Sunraycer takes the World Solar Challenge in Australia.
JAN. 1990
L.A.’s auto show goes high voltage when electrical engineer Alan Cocconi debuts the GM Impact electric prototype.
SEPT. 1990
Eco-conscious California passes a Zero-Emission mandate: By 1998, 2 percent of cars sold there must be electric.
1996
GM leases EV-1 electric cars.
1997
Toyota unveils the first mass-produced gas-electric hybrid car, the Prius, to drivers in Japan.
JULY 1999
Honda shows the Insight, the first hybrid vehicle available in the United States.
DEC. 1999
With the first leases up, GM begins to take its electric cars off the road.
2003–2005
GM starts destroying recalled EV-1s. Protesters persuade Toyota and Ford to sell rather than crush some of their remaining cars.
2005
Ron Gremban and Felix Kramer convert a Prius into the world’s first plug-in hybrid.
2006
Tesla Motors intro-duces the Roadster electric car, promising an energy efficiency equivalent of 135 mpg.
2007
Tom Hanks buys an AC Propulsion eBox, the first lithium-ion-battery-powered electric car. Toyota announces testing of its own plug-in Prius.
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