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The GM EV1 Electric cars are nothing new: From lever-powered hybrids to generator-towing luxury cars, we've tracked their progress for nearly a century


It's shaping up to be a big year for electric cars, with Chevrolet's Volt and Nissan's Leaf due before 2010 draws to a close.


Which makes it as good a time as ever to remind ourselves that the idea of an electric car is far from novel; in fact, it's been a persistent, tantalizing puzzle for automotive engineers hoping to eliminate gasoline from the equation for over a century. And there's no better place to track the history of the electric car than in the complete .




Click to launch the photo gallery


The story of the electric car and its relationship with the car-buying public is a fickle one. Whether for a hybrid or a pure electric, it remains a tough sell to get the majority of our drivers to give up their gas-guzzlers. This is especially evident in the sad and complicated story of the General Motors EV1--the first electric from a major manufacturer aimed squarely at consumers. The sad story of the EV1 has been well documented in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car", and as you'll see, we followed it from the very start, when it was just a concept.


Check out the gallery for a full look at a century of electric cars in the pages of Popular Science.

Tags: Cars, The Future Then, electric cars, history, hybrid cars, photo gallery, Popsci Archives, The Future Then

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Archive Gallery: The Electric Car, 1916-Present was originally published by Popular Science - Cars. Read the full story by clicking here.