The story of electric vehicles is longer (and more interesting) than you thought
There’s no doubt that the conversation around electric vehicles has changed over the past decade, since the launch of Tesla’s Model 3, to the point where many younger people around the world see buying an EV as “normal”.
The current global climate has undoubtedly given EV sales a further boost, at the same time as more and more carmakers are investing in research, development, and manufacturing as they try to bring more attractive EVs at lower price points to what’s become a very competitive market.
But did you know that electric cars predate petrol cars? Or that an electric vehicle was the first to break the 100 km/h barrier in 1899? Or that more than 100 years ago, before Henry Ford did what he did, roughly a third of American cars on the road were electric?
If the main thing you know about EVs is that Tesla revolutionised and revived the concept about 20 years ago, there’s a lot you’ve missed. Here’s a chronological look at the major milestones in the development and adoption of passenger EVs.
The first electric age (1830s–1910s)
1830s–1840s — Scottish inventor Robert Anderson builds a crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable batteries.
1859 — French physicist Gaston Planté invents the rechargeable lead-acid battery, the missing piece that makes a genuinely useful electric vehicle possible.
1881 — Gustave Trouvé (France) demonstrates a functioning three-wheeled electric vehicle on the streets of Paris, fitting an improved Siemens motor and a rechargeable battery to an English tricycle. He never patents the idea, instead moving on to adapting the same motor for boats, effectively inventing the outboard engine.
1884 — English engineer Thomas Parker, who later helped electrify the London Underground, builds what’s considered an early production electric car in Wolverhampton.
1888 — German engineer Andreas Flocken builds the Flocken Elektrowagen, widely regarded as the first genuine four-wheeled electric car.
1899 — The Belgian-built La Jamais Contente, an electric torpedo-shaped racer, becomes the first vehicle of any kind to break 100 km/h.
Late 1890s–1900s — Electric cars have their first real boom. Quiet, clean, and easy to start compared to hand-cranked petrol engines, they’re especially popular as city cars and taxis in the US and Europe. Brands like Baker Electric, Columbia, and Detroit Electric sell in meaningful numbers, and around the turn of the century roughly a third of American cars on the road are electric.
1908–1912 — Henry Ford’s mass-produced, cheap-to-run Model T (from 1908) and Charles Kettering’s invention of the electric starter motor (1912) both undercut the electric car’s main advantages. Combined with cheaper petrol and improving roads, electric vehicles go into a steep decline through the 1920s and all but disappear from the mass market for decades.
The long quiet period, and early revivals (1940s–1990s)
From 1941 — In Australia, engineer Roy Doring begins building and driving his own electric cars, eventually converting a 1959 Ford Prefect into an EV (you can see this car in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney).
Mid-1960s — In the mid-1960s, a few battery-electric concept cars appeared, as automakers experimented with electric drive amid growing concerns about urban air pollution.
1973 — The 1973 Enfield 8000 did make it into small-scale production, with 112 produced. Its launch coincided with the 1973 oil crisis, which briefly renewed mainstream interest in alternatives to petrol.
1990 — California introduces its Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, requiring automakers selling cars in the state to offer a rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles.
1996 — General Motors releases the EV1, widely considered the first mass-produced electric car of the modern era, available only by lease. With a lead-acid battery pack, it offered 70–100 miles (110-160 kilometres) of range. GM controversially recalled and crushed almost all EV1s after California’s ZEV mandate was weakened.
1997 — Toyota launches the Prius in Japan, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid. While not a pure EV, the Prius represents a pivotal step in mainstreaming electrified drivetrains.
Tesla and the modern lithium-ion era (2003–2012)
2003 — Tesla Motors is founded in California.
2004 — Tesla begins development of the Roadster, which was first delivered to customers in 2008. The Roadster was the first production EV built on lithium-ion cells and the first to exceed 200 miles (320 kms) of range on a charge.
2010 — The Nissan Leaf launches, generally regarded as the first mass-market, mainstream battery-electric car from a major manufacturer, alongside the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
2011 — The right-hand-drive Tesla Roadster Sport officially goes on sale in Australia, priced from around A$206,188 before on-road costs.
2012 — Australian BEV sales pass 100 for the first time in a calendar year, driven mainly by the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and first-generation Nissan Leaf. At the same time, Tesla delivers its first Model S sedans, with a breakthrough EPA-rated range of 265 miles (425 kms).
Scaling up (2013–2019)
2017 — Annual Australian EV sales pass 1,000 for the first time. Globally, Tesla begins deliveries of the Model 3, designed as its first genuinely mass-market model.
2019 — The Tesla Model 3 launches in Australia, triggering the first clearly visible jump in the country’s EV sales chart. About 5,264 EVs were sold in Australia that year, the large majority believed to be Model 3s.
2020 — Norway becomes the first country to see electric cars take the majority of new car sales in a calendar year: battery-electric vehicles reach 54.3% of new car sales, up from 42.4% in 2019 and just 1% a decade earlier. This boom was driven by Norway’s tax exemptions for zero-emission vehicles and its goal of ending sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025.
The mainstream tipping point (2021–2026)
2021 — In October 2021, the Tesla Model 3 becomes the first electric car ever to be the best-selling vehicle of any kind in Europe for a single month, outselling every petrol and diesel rival. Australian EV sales reach 17,243 for the year.
2022 — Global battery-electric vehicle sales cross the 10% new-car-sales-share milestone for the first time, with worldwide BEV sales reaching around 7.8 million units, up roughly 68% year-on-year, driven mainly by strong growth in China and Europe.
2024 — China’s electric car sales share approaches 50% for the full year, up from just 6% in 2020, cementing it as by far the largest EV market in absolute terms. Across the European Union, roughly one in five (about 21%) new cars sold is now electric. Norway edges toward its 2025 target, with EVs reaching 88.9% of new car sales for the year, and in August 2024 the number of fully electric cars on Norwegian roads overtakes the number of petrol cars for the first time.
2025 — Global EV sales hit around 20.7 million units, more than a quarter of all new cars sold worldwide for the first time. China’s EV sales share tips over 50% for the first time, and 39 countries reach an EV sales share above 10% (up from just four, all in Europe, back in 2019). In Australia, annual BEV sales reach 103,269 (up from just over 100 in 2012), putting the country roughly on a trajectory some analysts believe could see 80% EV penetration by 2030 if the trend continues. By January 2026, electric cars also overtake diesels on Norway’s roads, making EVs the single largest category in the country’s vehicle fleet for the first time.
2026 — In May 2026, EVs reach a record 19.9% share of new vehicle sales in Australia, with hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and full EVs together accounting for close to half of all new cars sold. The following month, Tesla posts its best-ever monthly result in Australia, with 8,670 deliveries, led by a record 8,072 Model Y deliveries.
Range: from 110 kilometres to 800-plus
Range anxiety has arguably been the single biggest barrier to EV adoption, and it’s a thread worth following on its own:
- 1996 — GM EV1: roughly 110–160 kms on its original lead-acid pack.
- 2008 — Tesla Roadster: the first production EV to exceed 320 kms per charge.
- 2012 — Tesla Model S: 425 kms EPA-rated range, a step-change for a five-seat production sedan.
- 2010s — Mainstream affordable EVs like the Nissan Leaf initially offer only around 110–160 kms; by the mid-2010s, larger battery packs push this past 240–320 kms.
- 2026 — Several production models exceed 650 miles of EPA-rated range, led by the Lucid Air Grand Touring at around 824 km (in July 2025, a Lucid Air Grand Touring set a Guinness World Record by driving roughly 1,205 km on a single charge).
Not a smooth road, but a clear one
There have been some notable bumps in the road to EV “domination”, and there will no doubt be more in the future. For example, European sales stalled in parts of 2024 as subsidies were wound back, while US sales growth cooled through 2025–26 as federal tax credits expired.
Here in Australia, we’re still grappling with all sorts of issues, not least the cost of new EVs (given there’s hardly a second-hand market at this point) and the lack of public charging infrastructure.
However, we’ve come a very long way from a hand-built tricycle in 1881 Paris to the point where a quarter of all cars sold worldwide last year were EVs, and there’s no turning back. The phenomenal growth in less than 10 years suggests that carmakers have no choice but to be all in on EVs, so there’s a pretty good chance that more milestones are coming … fast.
GloBird Energy recognises that there are plenty of Aussie EV owners looking for the most efficient and cost-effective way to charge their vehicles, so we created the EASYEV Plan specifically for them.
If you have an EV, you can take advantage of EASYEV’s reduced off-peak charging rate of $0.06 per kWh between 12 am and 6 am and 11 am and 2 pm daily (up to 20 kWh per day).
Check it out on the GloBird website.