Electric cars have continued to be developed for their own land speed records, which had crept up to 152mph by 1972 then dramatically rose to 271.7mph in 2004

The first-known electric carriages were built in the 1830s in Scotland and Holland; better ones followed in USA and Scotland c1842, but it was in France that more powerful rechargeable lead acid batteries were developed later in the century, allowing electric vehicles to flourish in the 1880s and 1890s.

Electric cars were built worldwide: they were perfect town vehicles, where distances were short and their suitability for commuting was far greater than rival means of transport. In 1893 a special exhibition of electric cars was held in Chicago; one was American, the other five were European.

Internal combustion-powered cars of the time were noisy, smelly, temperamental machines that required skill and effort to get running, and further skill and attention to keep running. Steam-powered cars required at least 45 minutes of preparation before they were ready for what might just be a 10 minute drive. But with an electric car, you just disconnected the charger, climbed in and drove away – no strenuous swinging on the starting handle, no fiddling with the engine, no stoking the boiler, just instant, smooth, vibration-free transport with performance to match the rivals. It’s no surprise that electric cars were particularly popular with ladies of the time, who had no inclination to get their hands dirty with mechanical contraptions. They also appreciated the fact that no gear-changing was required – one of the most tricky operations when driving a petrol-engined car in those early days.

A typical US electric car of the time, the 1902 Woods Phaeton, was a lightweight open two-seater with the batteries under the seat, a range of 18 miles and top speed of 14mph. It cost 00. Despite their limited range, electric cars’ advantages in terms of silence and smoothness of operation led to the establishment in New York of a fleet of electric taxis as early as 1897.

Electric cars developed rapidly and range soon increased to 30-40 miles, with top speeds increasing dramatically. Electric cars won a number of races at the time and a Belgian electric car, La Jamais Contente, took the World Land Speed Record in 1899 at 65.79mph. It would be three years before a petrol engine could beat it.

However, electric car development dried up as internal combustion-engined cars proved more practical – electricity wasn’t widespread and recharging was only possible in big cities. Henry Ford’s development of mass production saw the price of petrol cars drop, while their usability improved exponentially, so that by 1912, an electric car was almost three times the price of an equivalent petrol car. Inevitably, despite their advantages, demand fell away and electric vehicles had virtually disappeared by 1935.

Apart from low volume production of vans for short delivery runs, milk floats, fork lift trucks and similar vehicles where short distance stop-start motoring made them so much more convenient than petrol, electric cars became the playground of eccentric inventors and crackpots, clinging to the belief that they could make a practical electric vehicle. It’s surprising how many home-built electric vehicles were constructed in the 1960s, for example; we’ve seen Berkeley and Reliant three-wheeler, Bond Equipe, MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire, Renault Dauphine and more.

Weight, cost and bulk of the batteries were the big restrictions, along with the limited range between recharges. Batteries designed for starting cars are not ideal for powering them and suitable electric motors were also hard to find, often being sourced from golf caddies or industrial applications.

Internal combustion engines saw decades of intensive development, while electric car development stagnated. Only in the later 1960s, when concern grew about pollution from exhaust emissions and the dependence of the western world on oil imports, did development start again. The 1970s saw a series of compact two-seat city cars: commuter vehicles with electric motors. They looked like, and were, mildly developed golf carts; most successful was the Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar, of which some 2200 were built in the mid-1970s. Only 100 of the British Enfield 8000 were sold. GM’s EV1 sports coupe, first shown in 1990 and available to rent from 1996, was one of the bravest: but it was withdrawn in 2004 and GM tried to crush them all, amid much protest from electric vehicle campaigners. Other manufacturers who had offered electric vehicles also withdrew and crushed them, except Toyota which sold 328 RAV4-EVs for ,000 each; they command more now secondhand.

The huge disadvantage of electric cars with traditional lead acid batteries is their range between recharges, and the time it takes to recharge. Batteries are expensive and heavy, so you cannot just add more batteries to make the car go further. People demand reasonable performance to keep up with other traffic, and if you used the performance, even in the 1990s the range could be lower than 50 miles. OK for commuting, if you recharge overnight, but for a weekend trip to the grandparents, you had to have another car.

Solely electric vehicles have another practical disadvantage when it comes to motor vehicles, at least in cold climates – heating. Heated screens take care of demisting without excessive consumption, but an electric heater would flatten the batteries and reduce the range significantly, so in many cases petrol heaters were used, requiring a separate petrol tank that you had to remember to fill.

Back in 1900, Thomas Edison saw the need for a different type of battery for electric vehicles. He developed a nickel-iron-alkaline battery, launched in 1904 and 233% better than lead acid, perfecting it by 1909 with a 100-mile range, but cost and maintenance issues made it unpopular and the good old lead acid soldiered on for another century. Battery technology has advanced dramatically in the last two decades, aided by the demand for ever more powerful and compact batteries for electronic equipment like mobile phones. By the mid 1990s, nickel metal hydride batteries were giving up to 200 miles range to electric cars, though costs were high and vehicles were only bought by wealthy tree-huggers, even with government incentives. Lithium-ion Polymer batteries offer the ultimate power: weight ratio, but are expensive. California’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate of 1990 required 2% of vehicles to be zero emissions by 1998 and 10% by 2003, kicking off massive investment in research and development, but the repeated watering down of its requirements led to many manufacturers subsequently cancelling their electric vehicle programmes.

Electric cars have continued to be developed for their own land speed records, which had crept up to 152mph by 1972 then dramatically rose to 271.7mph in 2004, a record set by a team of undergraduate engineering students from Ohio State University, whose car recorded a top speed of 321mph.

Though the best-selling electric car is the diminutive Indian REVA, today’s most interesting pure-electric vehicle is the Tesla Roadster (Octane, March 2009). Developed by two entrepreneurs with no motor industry background, it sensibly borrows proven lightweight car technology (the Lotus Elise), adding Lithium-ion batteries and a high-torque electric motor to give 3.9sec 0-60mph, 125mph top speed and a range of 150-240 miles. Only problem is, it costs 0,000+; nevertheless, over 150 have already been sold. With a full recharge time as low as 3.5 hours, it’s streets ahead of other electric rivals like the Smart ed, which takes eight hours to recharge, has a range of 100 miles, takes 6.5sec to get to just 30mph and is limited to 60mph. Nonetheless the Smart is already on the streets of London, being tested by organisations from EDF Energy to Islington Council. Nissan has promised full electric cars for 2010.

Technology can bring back electric vehicles: the Tesla is the first to offer real performance with a truly practical range (and remember, an hour’s stop for lunch could see it one-third recharged); a little more development and mass production efficiencies could see electric cars being a credible alternative again. There are many innovations under development: small electric motors in each wheel give four-wheel drive with no drivetrain inefficiencies and these motors can double as high-power generators when braking is required, increasing the range for free; supercapacitors and improved electrical infrastructure could bring recharging down to 10 minutes, the equivalent of a petrol stop. Near-silent operation and ultra-low running costs go a long way to offset the higher initial costs. Thomas Edison, who spent the last 30 years of his life pondering how to make batteries suitable for electric cars, would be proud.