In electric vehicles, energy is provided by an electric motor powered by batteries or battery sets, which replaces the internal combustion engines in conventional gasoline or diesel cars. Electric motors are the most harmless energy production method as long as they are obtained from renewable sources. Electric motors can replace vehicles with internal combustion engines in the future, even as the purchasing power of oil, which is only among limited resources, decreases and countries are dependent on foreign sources.
It is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel-consuming engines, as it does not harm the environment and maximum performance can be obtained from the stored energy. Now there are many companies in the world that produce batteries for electric vehicles and electric vehicles. With the effect of developing technology, it is thought that vehicles with internal combustion engines that consume fossil fuels will decrease day by day.
The first attempts to produce electric cars began in the 1800s, before fossil fuel engines. However, until the Roadster model released by Tesla in 2011, a long-term success could not be achieved for various reasons. Let’s get away from the days when it is almost impossible to own a car with inflation, dollar rate and taxes, and look at the development process of electric vehicles from the first examples to today.
The first electric car was produced in 1835
The first example of electric vehicles was invented in America by Thomas Davenport in 1835. This vehicle was a small locomotive designed using two electromagnets, a pivot and a battery. Robert Anderson, who lived in Scotland at the same time, also succeeded in inventing an electrically powered vehicle. However, since this vehicle invented by Anderson did not have a charging feature, it could not adapt to daily life and was relatively unsuccessful.
Electric cars, whose work started in the 1830s, were at their most productive in the early 1900s. During this period, successful examples of electric cars began to be seen and became more and more widespread. In fact, electric commercial taxis were starting to be used in New York. Of the more than 4000 cars produced in America, 28% were powered by electricity. In the same period, two-thirds of automobiles in major cities such as New York, Boston and Chicago were electric vehicles.
Since many technical problems such as vibration and noise were encountered in gasoline vehicles produced with the limited technology of those years, the demand for electric vehicles as well as vehicles with internal combustion engines was increasing rapidly.
And Henry Ford introduced the Model T
In 1908, the American automobile giant Ford Motor Company, founded by the American engineer Henry Martin Ford, began mass production of gasoline vehicles. Model T, the first car to be mass-produced, was introduced. Thanks to Henry Ford’s ‘tape system’, the American automobile market was turned upside down. Gasoline car prices fell by as much as a third of electric vehicles.
In 1912, an electric car cost $1750, while a petrol car cost only $650. In the 1920s, the demand for electric vehicles had decreased considerably, and now the Model T was mostly preferred. Longer driving range, horsepower, low price and easy access to gasoline in gasoline vehicles were the main reasons for electric vehicles to lag behind.
Uncontrolled consumption has revealed the need for electric cars again
In the rapidly developing automobile market in the 1960s, the number of automobiles that increased with intensive production also increased the purchasing power of people. Owning a car had become much easier, mass consumption had begun as intended in every mass production. However, this uncontrolled consumption brought along many problems such as harmful fuels and air pollution. Due to the environmental damage caused by fossil fuel engines and the impact of the oil crisis, alternatives to vehicles powered by internal combustion engines began to be sought.
In 1972, a BMW 1602 E model electric vehicle was designed, which would never go into production. The vehicle was exhibited at the Olympic Games that year and attracted great interest. At that time, hybrid and electric vehicles became popular again. This popularity caused America to take new decisions and encourage vehicle manufacturers by the state. Electric car production efforts, which were carried out gradually, came to the fore again with the Clean Air Law Amendment and Energy Policy Law signed in the 1990s.
General Motors’ EV1 model, which was introduced as the “world’s most efficient production vehicle” in 1996, was produced. However, failures in the marketing strategies of the EV1s prevented production from continuing. Then, Toyota, one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers, introduced the Prius, its hybrid car that was commercially marketed and mass-produced for the first time. Prius, which started production in 1997, sold close to 70,000 units in its first year.
Henry Ford of the 21st century, Elon Musk, started to produce electric vehicles
Until 2000, such as Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Cheyy, General Motor major car manufacturers began to produce electric vehicles. However, there was no serious success with the vehicles produced in these periods. The move that has been effective in seeing such successful examples of electric cars today was when Tesla Motor started electric vehicle production in 2006.
Tesla’s Roadster model produced in 2011 revolutionized the history of electric vehicles. Unlike other car examples, Tesla Roadster stood out with its 240 km range performance. 100 years later, Elon Musk made a similar move to Henry Ford’s Model T with the Tesla Roadster. Increasing its range capacity over time and producing highly advanced electric vehicles, Tesla Motor has become the leading brand of the industry.
Tesla Today; It has become a giant ecosystem by producing the necessary equipment for electric vehicles such as the vehicle’s infrastructure, electric motor, battery and charging stations. The market value of Tesla, the world’s best-selling electric car brand, with factories in many countries, has exceeded 1 trillion dollars in recent days. By becoming the world’s first trillion dollar automobile company, Tesla once again proved that electric vehicles will dominate the automobile market in the future.
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