A History of Electric Cars - Why not Earlier?

For some research, I wanted to look back at the history of electric cars and where the initial ideas came from. So I delved into the internet archives to see where it all started.

• In 1932 an inventor named Robert Anderson invented an electric carriage powered by non rechargeable primary cells. It may have been a very crude attempt but it was the start of something, he probably didn't know what we started! It only had a top speed of four miles an hour but it was this attempt into the world of electric that changed peoples views on how carriages could be powered. 
• In 1987, the first electric taxis where rolled out in New York. The company Pope Manufacturing became the largest scale electric automobile manufacturer and starts to pioneer this form of technology.
• In 1900 electric cars where really coming onto their own. 28% of the cars manufactured in the United States where powered by electric. That is a staggering number when you consider that number is 1.4% nowadays in the united states. Fact from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country
• 1908 - The ford model T becomes the first mass produced car in the world but it is fuelled by petrol, this is a changing point for the electric vehicle.
• In the 1920's electric car use is nearly dead, people wanted long distance vehicles and electric was not a viable option. Petrol was pretty much the whole market share right now and electric was dying off quickly.
• A long gap, but in 1966, Congress in the US passed a bit that recommended the use of electric vehicles. Apparently 33 million Americans where interested in potentially using and owning an electric car. 
  
• In 1972 "The Godfather of Hybrid" Victor Wouk builds the first hybrid car, an adapted version of the Buick Skylark, but in 1976 the programme was killed and the idea is lost.
• In 1974 Vangaurd's Citicar makes it's debut. It has a range of 40 miles and by 1975 they become the 6th biggest car maker in the united states. It was all looking positive for the Citicar (yellow thing on the right) but unfortunately the programme fell though a few years after it was looking so good.
  
• in 1975 the US postal service purchased 350 electric vehicles to test.
• In 1981 General motors in the united states puts efforts into making an electric car. the EV1 is created and is seen as "the most efficient production vehicle in the world"
• In 1990 California passes a mandate which required 2% of the states vehicles to have no emissions by 1998 and 10% by 2003. This really kick starts the push of electric and Hybrid cars.
• In 1997, the biggest announcement in the world
  
  of electric and Hybrid cars. The Toyota PRIUS is announced. 18,000 units are sold in the first production year.
• In the early 2000's electric cars are starting to boom with thousands of electric cars are being produced. Then suddenly, all-electric production programs are discontinued. 
• 2006 is a key year. TESLA announces the tesla roadster. It starts selling in 2008 but has a whopping price tag of $99,000. This would put a lot of buyers off as a similarly sized sporty, petrol car would cost you about $30,000. This though may not be an issue if you
  
  are interested in motoring and are looking to the future. Providing support to an electric car start up would always be positive. 
• In 2009, the united states allocates $2 billion worth of development into electric cars as well as $400 million to build the infrastructure. 
• 2010-Present: ELECTRIC only seems to keep improving. More and more cars that are being sold are electric. BMW, Nissan, Smart, Renault and Tesla are some of the biggest producers of electric cars in the united kingdom. The Nissan Leaf is the highest selling electric car in the UK and with more and more big car manufacturers are producing electric cars. As of the last few months
  
  Volkswagen have started selling the e-golf and also Mini are starting to delve into the world of electric. Electric cars are taking up more and more of the market share of new cars being sold in the UK and we just need to build the infrastructure to facilitate that. The car industry is going electric whether we like it or not! We just need to make sure that we do not progress to fast without having the charging stations in place first!
  I feel that we could have gone electric a long time ago but the decision to go with Petrol so early on into the cars life cycle, it was always going to take time to convert back once we made that decision back in the early 1900's. The demand for electric was always there but with advancing technologies it now makes it easier and easier to make an electric car that is viable. Many car manufacturers are pioneering electric so we could expect a fully electric car society in the next 20 years!