gathering storms, rumble of thunder, lightning strikes from the sky CRASH! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!, a skunk dressed up like Raiden from Mortal Kombat is floating in the air as swirling storm clouds form around him, lightning radiates from his paws and eyes

Kent Fox: AAHH!! D:

ZAP! KAKRASH! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Kent Fox: AAHH!! D: tries to flee on his bicycle*ZAP! AAHH!! D: ZAP! AAAHHH!!! ZAP!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! D: falls off his bike okay enough already!, what do you want from me!? D:

Kent...there is another special review coming Kent, and I need your help to review it

Kent Fox: wait a minute, that's it!?, you dressed up like chinese lightning shooting demi god from a video game and chase me around on my bike just to ask me to join you in a special review!? D:<

.........yes

Kent Fox: I would've said yes!!!! D:<

...I knew you would...this was just too much fun doing it this way

Kent Fox: what's Raiden have to do with cars anyways!?

absolutely nothing Kent, only the lightning power has something to do with what you and I will be reviewing

Kent Fox: and what would that be?

in the spirit of Earth Realm Day, we will be reviewing the history and evolution of the electric car thunder and lightning sounds

Kent Fox: you mean Earth Day?

precisely Kent, Earth Realm Day, come on let's go start the review thunder and lightning sounds

Kent Fox: it's called Earth Day

yes guys, It's going to be a review on the history of electric vehicles in celebration of Earth Day this month.
the history of EV's only go as far back as what people of my generation learned about them, which would back to the 70's or 80's, but the EV's existence goes waay further back than that, in fact it goes all the way back to the dawn of the automotive age when the first automobiles were developed and you would quite suprised if didn't know already when the first electric was developed, so let's get our green thumbs on and put on our think green apparel, this is the history and evolution of the electric car.

the very first electric car believe it or not actually came out in 1881, it was three wheeled tricycle with two little wheels on the right side and one big wheel on the left side and it was built by Gustave Trouve a French eletrical engineer.
EV's like I said first appeared at the start of the automotive age while at first they perform very well back then at the start as far as reliability and range is concerned, some did leave a mark in history.
one good example would the very first official automobile land speed record, it was set not by a car powered a steam or an internal combustion engine but actually by an electric car called "Le Jamais Contente" (the first purpose built land speed record car) in 1898, electric vehicles afer the Le Jamais Contente held the land speed record until 1902 when their record was beaten by a steam powered car.
while electric cars proved their might in speed trials, they were too costly and the battery range was too short to make them dependable and especially in racing, in my humble opinion electric vehicles I believe were too far ahead of their time and the technology to make them as dependable as they are today just wasn't there at the time.
another issue with electric cars back then was speed, they couldn't compete with the steamers or gasoline powered vehicles, they were faster, plus gasoline powered cars had the longest range, this led to a worldwide decline in the their use, however, the EV technology did find another purpose powering electric trains and street cars, as well as a variety of other niche uses.
it wouldn't be until the start of the 21st century that EV's would start to make a comeback and by the of the 2010's, they made a full comeback.
interest in electric and other alternative fuel vehicles was rising due to growing concerns over the problems of carbon monoxide including damage to the eviroment caused by emissions, and sustainability of the transportation infrastructure as well as improvements in EV technology.
starting in 2010, sales of both pure electric vehicles and utility vans combined exceeded over one million units delivered globally in September 2016 and sales of electric light duty trucks and plug in hybrids combined exceeded over five million units in December 2018.
but to truly understand and appreciate electric vehicles, we have to go

back to the very beginning, but the invention of the EV has various people it's history is attributed too, let's go back the very beginning of when the first electric motor was produced which ultimately led to the development of an electric powered model car (a toy you could say and I ironically the very first electric car).
it begins 1828 when Anyos Jedlik (a Hungarian inventor) invented an early type of electric motor and created a small model car powered by his electric motor.
in 1834, a blacksmith in Vermont named Thomas Davenport built a simular contraption which operated on a short, circular, electrified track.
in 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen from the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker from Germany, also created a small scale electric car powered by non rechargable primary cells (batteries if you don't know what that means).

electric locomotives:

now let's talk electric locomotives (electric trains) for a moment because that's part of this story too and as you know, electric motors played a roll in the railroad industry too, the first electric locomotive was built in 1837 in Scotland by a chemist named Robert Davidson (vroom vroom*biker metal not that Davidson) of Aberdeen Scotland.
it was powered by galvanic cells (another type of battery I'm nobody knew about until I mentioned it, not even I knew).
Davidson later built a larger locomotive powered by these batteries called Galvani, which was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts exhibition in 1841, the seven ton engine had two direct drive reluctance motors with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle and simple commutators.
it could hall a load weighing over six tons at four miles per hour for a distance of one and a half miles.
it was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use.
it was later destroyed by railway workers who saw it as a threat to their security of employment (what a bloody shame that is laddy).

the first practical electric cars:

okay let's get back to talking about electric cars now, "the first practical electric cars".
like I mentioned above in the beginning of this review, the first electric car (probably should've mentioned practical in the first place) was a three wheeled tricycle built by Gustave Trouve in 1881.
the invention of rechargable batteries that was developed in 1859 made it possible, providing a viable means of storing electricty onboard a vehicle with the invention of lead-acid batteries developed by French physicist Gaston Plante.
a French scientist, Camille Alphonse Faure, later improved the design of the battery in 1881, his improvements increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacturing on an industrial scale.
Gustave's large sidewheeled electric tricycle was the first practical human carrying EV with it's own power source was tested on a street in Paris, France in April, 1881, previously in 1880 Gustave improved the efficiency of a small electric motor developed by Seimens (which derived from a design that was purchased from Johann Kravolgi in 1867, an inventer from Italy who was also a mechanic and a gunmaker to boot) and using it the rechargable battery, fitted it to an English James Starley tricycle, thus inventing considerably the world's first electric vehicle and first as in one you can actually ride and was practical.
although this was tested to great success on April 19, 1881, he was unable to pantent it.
Gustave swiftly adapted his battery powered motor to marine propulsion, to make it easy to carry his marine conversion to and from his workshop to the nearby River Seine, Gustave made it portable and removable from the boat, thus inventing the outboard motor.
on May 26, 1881, the 5m Trouve boat prototype called Le Telephone (yes, that's actually what he called it) reached a speed of two miles per hour going upstream, and five per hour going downstream.
an Enlgish inventor/electrical engineer, Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground rail system, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite, built the first production electric car in Wolverhampton in 1884, although the only documentation there is in existance, is a photograph from 1895.
Parker's interest in the construction of more fuel efficient vehicles led him to experiment with electric vehicles.
you could also say he was earliest known enviromentalist in history because of his concerns over smog and pollution, long before the goverment excersized such concerns like those starting back in the late 1960's.
except his concern over pollution was only limited to a pollution problem in London, his home city.
production of the automobile in the hands of the Elwell Parker Company, established in 1882 for the construction of electric trams.
the company merged with other rivals in 1888 to form the Electric Construction Corporation, this company had a virtual monopoly on the British electric car market in the 1890's, the company manufactured the first electric dog cart in 1896.
France and the United Kingdom were the first nations to support the widepsread development of electric vehicles, German engineer Andreas Flocken was would be considered the first real electric car in 1888, the Flocken Elektrowagon.
electric vehicles also found a purpose in the mining business, because electric trains were electric, they never used up any precious oxygen inside a mine and made perfect means of transporting coal out of the mines.
eventually the electric car would find it's way to the United States, the electric car built in the America was developed by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, the car was a six passenger wagon capable of reaching a speed of fourteen miles per hour.
it was not until 1895 that consumers began to devote attention to electric vehicles, after A.L. Ryker introduced the first electric tricycles to the U.S. by which point Europeans began making use of electric bicycles, tricycles, and cars for almost fifteen years.

a golden age for electric cars:

interest in automobiles increased greatly by the late 1890's and early 1900's.
electric battery powered taxis became available at the end of the nineteenth century, in London, Walter Bersey designed a fleet of such taxi cabs and introduced them on the streets of London in 1897.
they were nicknamed "Hummingbirds" due to the idiosyncratic humming noise they made.
in the same year in New York City, the Samuel's Electric Carraige and Wagon Company began running twelve electric Hansom cabs.
the company ran until 1898 with up to sixty two cabs operating until it was reformed by it's financiers to form the Electric Vehicle Company (E.V.C).
Electric vehicles had a number of advantages over their early-1900s competitors. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. They also did not require gear changes. (While steam-powered cars also had no gear shifting, they suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings.) The cars were also preferred because they did not require a manual effort to start, as did gasoline cars which featured a hand crank to start the engine.
Electric cars found popularity among well-heeled customers who used them as city cars, where their limited range proved to be even less of a disadvantage.
Electric cars were often marketed as suitable vehicles for women drivers due to their ease of operation; in fact, early electric cars were stigmatized by the perception that they were "women's cars", leading some companies to affix radiators to the front to disguise the car's propulsion system.
Acceptance of electric cars was initially hampered by a lack of power infrastructure, but by 1912, many homes were wired for electricity, enabling a surge in the popularity of the cars. In the United States by the turn of the century, 40 percent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline. A total of 33,842 electric cars were registered in the United States, and the U.S. became the country where electric cars had gained the most acceptance.
Most early electric vehicles were massive, ornate carriages designed for the upper-class customers that made them popular. They featured luxurious interiors and were replete with expensive materials. Sales of electric cars peaked in the early 1910s.
In order to overcome the limited operating range of electric vehicles, and the lack of recharging infrastructure, an exchangeable battery service was first proposed as early as 1896.
The concept was first put into practice by Hartford Electric Light Company through the GeVeCo battery service and initially available for electric trucks. The vehicle owner purchased the vehicle from General Vehicle Company (GVC, a subsidiary of the General Electric Company) without a battery and the electricity was purchased from Hartford Electric through an exchangeable battery. The owner paid a variable per-mile charge and a monthly service fee to cover maintenance and storage of the truck. Both vehicles and batteries were modified to facilitate a fast battery exchange. The service was provided between 1910 and 1924 and during that period covered more than 6 million miles. Beginning in 1917 a similar successful service was operated in Chicago for owners of Milburn Wagon Company cars who also could buy the vehicle without the batteries.

The decline of interest in EV's:

After enjoying success at the beginning of the 20th century, the electric car began to lose its position in the automobile market. A number of developments contributed to this situation. By the 1920s an improved road infrastructure required vehicles with a greater range than that offered by electric cars. Worldwide discoveries of large petroleum reserves led to the wide availability of affordable gasoline, making gas-powered cars cheaper to operate over long distances. Electric cars were limited to urban use by their slow speed (no more than 15–20 mph) and low range (30–40 miles), and gasoline cars were now able to travel farther and faster than equivalent electrics.
Gasoline cars became even easier to operate thanks to the invention of the electric starter by Charles Kettering in 1912, which eliminated the need of a hand crank for starting a gasoline engine, and the noise emitted by ICE cars became more bearable thanks to the use of the muffler, which Milton O. Reeves and Marshall T.
Reeves had invented in 1897.
Finally, the initiation of mass production of gas-powered vehicles by Henry Ford brought their price down.
By contrast, the price of similar electric vehicles continued to rise; by 1912, an electric car sold for almost double the price of a gasoline car.
Most electric car makers stopped production at some point in the 1910s. Electric vehicles became popular for certain applications where their limited range did not pose major problems. Forklift trucks were electrically powered when they were introduced by Yale in 1923.
In Europe, especially the United Kingdom, milk floats were powered by electricity, and for most of the 20th century the majority of the world's battery electric road vehicles were British milk floats.
Electric golf carts were produced by Lektro as early as 1954.
By the 1920s, the early heyday of electric cars had passed, and a decade later, the electric automobile industry had effectively disappeared. Michael Brian examines the social and technological reasons for the failure of electric cars in his book Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America.
Years passed without a major revival in the use of electric cars. Fuel-starved European countries fighting in World War II experimented with electric cars such as the British milk floats and the French Bréguet Aviation car, but overall, while ICE development progressed at a brisk pace, electric vehicle technology stagnated.
In the late 1950s, Henney Coachworks and the National Union Electric Company, makers of Exide batteries, formed a joint venture to produce a new electric car, the Henney Kilowatt, based on the French Renault Dauphine.
The car was produced in 36-volt and 72-volt configurations; the 72-volt models had a top speed approaching sixty miles per hour and could travel for nearly an hour on a single charge.
Despite the Kilowatt's improved performance with respect to previous electric cars, consumers found it too expensive compared to equivalent gasoline cars of the time, and production ended in 1961.

the revival of interest and popularity for EV's:

in 1959, AMC (American Motors Corporation) and Sonotone Corporation announced a joint effort to consider producing an electric car powered by a self charging battery.
AMC had a reputation for building innovative economy cars while Sonotone had technology for making sintered plate nickel-cadmium batteries that can be recharged rapidly and weighed less than traditional lead-acid batteries.
that same year, Nu-Way Industries showed an experimental electric car with a one piece plastic body that was to begin production in early 1960 (the world's first production electric car, take that Nissan and Tesla ;3).
in the mid 1960's, a few battery-electric concept cars appeared, such as the Scottish Aviation Scamp, produced in 1965 (only twelve were made), and an electric version of a Chevrolet Corvair called the Electrovair, produced in 1966 (which is pretty much corporate slang for an electric Corvair), this car never made it into production.
in 1973, another electric car was developed, the Enfield 8000, it made it into small scale production but only 120 of them made, and they were powered by an eight horsepower electric motor powered by lead-acid batteries.
in 2967, AMC partnered with Gulton Industries to develop a new battery based on lithium and a speed controller designed by Victor Wouk.
a nickel-cadmium battery supplied power to a 1969 all electric Rambler American station wagon.
other experimental EV's were developed by AMC with Gulton including one called the Amitron in 1967, an oblong shaped expiremental prototype with a 150 mile range, and a similar one in 1977 called Electron which was basically the Amitron just with a different name.
on July 31st, 1971, an electric car received the unique distinction of the first manned vehicle on the moon, the Lunar Roving Vehicle or LRV produced by Boeing and General Motors, took a drive on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission.
the moon buggy as it was called, featured a DC drive motor in each wheel, and a pair of 36 volt silver zinc potassium hydroxide non rechargable batteries.
to this day, the LRV is still on the moon.
after years of being set aside, the energy crisis of the 1970's and 1980's sparked renewed interest in electric cars and the independence they had from the fluctuations of the hydrocarbon energy market.
General Motors created a concept EV of another of their gas powered vehicles, an electric Chevette dubbed the "Electrivette", it was developed in 1976 but wasn't intended for production.
at the 1990 Los Angelas Autoshow, General Motors preisdent Roger Smith unveiled the GM Impact electric concept car, along with the announcement that GM would build electric cars that will be for sale to the public.
in the early 1990's, the California Air Resources Board or CARB for short, California's clean air agency, began a push for more fuel efficient, lower emission vehicles with a herculean goal progressing towards zero emission vehicles.
in response, automakers developed electric models including the Chrysler TEVan (produced from 1993 to 1995), the Ford Ranger EV (produced from 1998 through 2002), GM EV1 which looks like you see in a 90's sci fi movie (produced from 1996 to 1999), the Chevy S-10-EV a very rare EV truck and practically non existent today (produced from 1997 to 1998), Honda EV Plus hatchback (produced from 1997 to 1999), Nissan Altra EV Miniwagon powered by a lithium batteries (produced from 1997 to 2001), and the Toyota Rav4 EV (there two different times this one was produced, first time it was produced from 1997 to 2003, second time they were produced from 2012 to 2014).
the automakers were accused for pandering to CARB's wishes in order to continue to be allowed to sell cars on the California market, while failing to adequately promote their EV's in order to create the impression that the consumers were not interested in the cars, all the while joining oil industry lobbyists in vigorously protesting CARB's mandate.
GM's program came under particular scrutiny; in an unusual move, consumers were not allowed to purchase EV1s, but were instead asked to sign closed-end leases, meaning that the cars had to be returned to GM at the end of the lease period, with no option to purchase, despite leasee interest in continuing to own the cars.
Chrysler, Toyota, and a group of GM dealers sued CARB in Federal court, leading to the eventual neutering of CARB's ZEV Mandate.
After public protests by EV drivers' groups upset by the repossession of their cars, Toyota offered the last 328 RAV4-EVs for sale to the general public during six months, up until 22 November 2002.
Almost all other production electric cars were withdrawn from the market and were in some cases seen to have been destroyed by their manufacturers.
Toyota continues to support the several hundred Toyota RAV4-EV in the hands of the general public and in fleet usage.
GM de-activated the few EV1s that were donated to engineering schools and museums.
Throughout the 1990s, interest in fuel-efficient or environmentally friendly cars declined among consumers in the United States, who instead favored sport utility vehicles, which were affordable to operate despite their poor fuel efficiency thanks to lower gasoline prices.
Domestic U.S. automakers chose to focus their product lines around the truck-based vehicles, which enjoyed larger profit margins than the smaller cars which were preferred in places like Europe or Japan.
Most electric vehicles on the world roads are low-speed, low-range neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV's). Pike Research estimated there were almost 479,000 NEV's on the world roads in 2011.
As of July 2006, there were between 60,000 and 76,000 low-speed battery-powered vehicles in use in the United States, up from about 56,000 in 2004.
North America's top selling NEV is the Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) vehicles, with more than 50,000 units sold worldwide by mid 2014.
The world's two largest NEV markets in 2011 were the United States, with 14,737 units sold, and France, with 2,231 units.
Other micro electric cars sold in Europe was the Kewet, since 1991, and replaced by the Buddy, launched in 2008.
Also the Th!nk City was launched in 2008 but production was halted due to financial difficulties.
Production restarted in Finland in December 2009.
The Th!nk was sold in several European countries and the U.S.
In June 2011 Think Global filed for bankruptcy and production was halted.
Worldwide sales reached 1,045 units by March 2011.
A total of 200,000 low-speed small electric cars were sold in China in 2013, most of which are powered by lead-acid batteries.
These electric vehicles are not considered by the government as new energy vehicles due to safety and environmental concerns, and consequently, do not enjoy the same benefits as highway legal plug-in electric cars.

2000's, the birth of modern highway capable EV's:

the emergence of metal-oxide semiconductor technology led to the development of modern electric EV's.
this technology invented by inventors Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Khang at Bell Labs in 1959, led to the development of a semi oxide conducter called, a power mosfet (develop by Hitachi in 1969), and the single chip microprocessor by Fredrico Fraggin, Marcian Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, and Stanley Mazor at Intel in 1971.
the power mosfet and the microcontroller, a type of singlechip microprocessor, led to advances in electric vehicle technology.
mosfet power converters allowed operation at higher switching frequencies, made it easier to drive, reduced power losses, and reduce prices, while single chip microcontrollers could manage all aspects of the drive control and had the capacity for battery management.
Another important technology that enabled modern highway-capable electric cars is the lithium-ion battery.
It was invented by John Goodenough, Rachid Yazami and Akira Yoshino in the 1980s, and commercialized by Sony and Asahi Kasei in 1991.
The lithium-ion battery was responsible for the development of electric vehicles capable of long-distance travel.
in 2003 California electric car maker Tesla Motors was founded, and in 2004 they began development on the Tesla Roadster, which was first delivered to customers in 2008.
The Roadster was the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 320 km (200 miles) per charge.
Since 2008, Tesla sold approximately 2,450 Roadsters in over 30 countries through December 2012.
Tesla sold the Roadster until early 2012, when its supply of Lotus Elise gliders ran out, as its contract with Lotus Cars for 2,500 gliders expired at the end of 2011.
Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster in the U.S. market in August 2011, and the 2012 Tesla Roadster was sold in limited numbers only in Europe, Asia and Australia.
The next Tesla vehicle, the Model S, was released in the U.S. on June 22, 2012 and the first delivery of a Model S to a retail customer in Europe took place on August 7, 2013.
Deliveries in China began on April 22, 2014.
The next model was the Tesla Model X, In November 2014 Tesla delayed one more time the start of deliveries to retail customers, and announced the company expects Model X deliveries to begin in the third quarter of 2015.
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV was launched in Japan for fleet customers in July 2009, and for individual customers in April 2010, followed by sales to the public in Hong Kong in May 2010, and Australia in July 2010 via leasing.
The i-MiEV was launched in Europe in December 2010, including a rebadged version sold in Europe as Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero.
The market launch in the Americas began in Costa Rica in February 2011, followed by Chile in May 2011.
Fleet and retail customer deliveries in the U.S. and Canada began in December 2011.
Accounting for all vehicles of the iMiEV brand, Mitsubishi reports around 27,200 units sold or exported since 2009 through December 2012, including the minicab MiEVs sold in Japan, and the units rebadged and sold as Peugeot ION and Citroen C-Zero in the European market.
Senior leaders at several large automakers, including Nissan and General Motors, have stated that the Roadster was a catalyst which demonstrated that there is pent-up consumer demand for more efficient vehicles.
In an August 2009 edition of The New Yorker, GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz was quoted as saying, "All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us – and boom, along comes Tesla.
So I said, 'How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can't?' That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam."

2010-2020: EV's today:

in December 2010, Nissan introduced the Leaf to Japan and the United States, it was the first modern all electric, non tailpipe zero emission five door hatchback to be produced by a giant manufacturer for the mass market, it eventually became available in Australia, Canada, and seventeen European coutries starting in January 2013.
in 2007 an electric car network was started called Better Place, it was the first deployment network that deployed EV's that can swap out their batteries, their first EV model was the Renault Fluence Z.E which was sold in Israel and Denmark.
they launched their first battery station in Kiryat Ekron, Israel in March 2011, a single battery changing process only took about five minutes (about as fast as filling up gas or diesel powered vehicle).
as of December 2012, there were seventeen Battery swapping stations in Denamrk allowing drivers to drive anywhere in the country in an EV.
by late 2012, the company began to suffer financially and decided to put their plans of expanding to Australia on hold and reduce their operations in North America as they decided to concentrate it's resources on it's two existing markets.
on May 26, 2013, Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel.
the company's financial troubles were caused by the high investment required to develop the infrastructure for battery charging/swapping stations, it was going to cost them $850 million dollars in private capital (how on earth were they gonna be able to pay that off for such a relatively small company?), and a market penetration that was much lower than they expected and originally predicted by Shai Agassi.
less than one thousand Fluence Z.E cars were deployed in Israel and around four hundred cars in Denmark, afterwards all that remained now are some deserted battery stations scattered about in Israel and Denmark, some of them are still there today if you want to see them, the location of them I don't quite know, you'll have to Google it.
by 2011, various other car makers were launching new EV's on the market for customers, Smart launched their Fortwo EQ (now just called Fortwo Electric Drive), Shuanghuan Auto introduced their limited production Wheego Whip and then later a production version called Wheego Whip LiFe, Mia Electric were just opening their doors for business at the time, Volvo introduced the C30 electric hatchback, and Ford launched their Focus Electric, a year ealier in 2010 another comapny called BYD also launched an electric vehicle of their own called the E6, it was originally launched for fleet customers starting in Shenzen, China in October 2011, and in December 2012, Bollore launched the Pinninfarina designed Bluecar in Bairo, Italy and was later deployed for use in the Autolib car sharing service in Paris, France.
leasing to individual and corporate customers began in 2012 and is limited to the lle-de-France area.
in February 2011, the Mitsubishi i MiEV became the first electric car to sell more than 10,000 units, including the models badged in Europe as the Citroen C-Zero and Peugoet.
the record was officially registered by Guinness World Records.
several months later, the Nissan Leaf beat that record as the best selling EV ever when it passed the 50,000 mark.
during 2012 and 2013, new models were released to market, BMW introduced the ActiveE, Coda was just getting started in selling cars to the U.S, REnault introduced their Fluence Z.E, Tesla was just getting started and introducing their Roadster and Model S, Honda introduced their Fit EV, Toyota launched their Rav4 EV, Renault introduced the Zoe (rather neat looking hatchback if you ask me), Roewe announced and launched E50 (aaww look at that little thing), Mahindra launched their E2O, Chevrolet introduced the Spark EV, Mercedes Benz launched an AMG performance oriented SLS AMG Electric Drive, Fiat introduced the 500E (an electricfied version of a timeless classic), Volkswagon introduced the e-UP!, BMW introduced what I thought were the coolest and most futuristic looking of the recent crop of EV's, the I series cars (the I3 and I8) and the Kandi EV, Toyota launched the SCion IQ EV (basically the American equivelant of the Toyota eQ sold in Japan).
Toyota limited car production to one hundred units, thirty of them were delivered to the University of California in March 2013 for use in it's zero emission vehicle network car-sharing fleet.
Toyota announced that ninety out of one hundred vehicles produced globally will be placed in car sharing demonstration projects in the United States and in Japan.
the Coda sedan went out of production in 2013, after selling only one hundred units in California.
it's manufacturer, Coda Automotive, filed for chapter eleven bank ruptcy protection on May 1, 2013.
the company stated that it expects to emerge from the bankruptcy process to focus on energy storage solutions as they had decided to abandoned car manufacturing.
the Tesla Model S ranked as the top selling plug in electric car in North America during the first quarter of 2013 with 4,900 cars sold ahead of the Nissan Leaf (3,695).
European import shipments of the Tesla Model S began in Oslo, Norway in August 2013, and during it's first full month in the market, Model S ranked as the top selling car in Norway with 616 units delivered, representing a market share of 5.1% of all the new cars sold in the country in September 2013, becoming the first electric car to top the new car sales ranking in any country, and contributing to a record all electric car market share of 8.6% of new car sales during that month.
in October 2013, the Nissan Leaf became the best selling in the country for the second month in a row with 716 units sold, representing a 5.6% of new car sales this month.
the Renault–Nissan Alliance reached global sales of 100,000 all-electric

in November 2014 the Renault–Nissan Alliance reached 200,000 all-electric vehicles delivered globally, representing a 58% share of the global light-duty all-electric market segment
vehicles in July 2013.
the 100,000th customer was a U.S. student who bought a Nissan Leaf.
In mid January 2014, global sales of the Nissan Leaf reached the 100,000 unit milestone, representing a 45% market share of worldwide pure electric vehicles sold since 2010, the one hundred thousandth car was delivered to a British customer.
the Renault–Nissan Alliance reached global sales of 100,000 all-electric vehicles in July 2013.
the one hundred thousandth customer was a U.S. student who bought a Nissan Leaf.
in mid January 2014, global sales of the Nissan Leaf reached the 100,000 unit milestone, representing a 45% market share of worldwide pure electric vehicles sold since 2010, the one hundreth thousandth car was delivered to a British customer.
as of June 2014, there were over 500,000 plug-in electric passenger cars and utility vans in the world, with the U.S. leading plug-in electric car sales with a 45% share of global sales.
in September 2014, sales of plug-in electric cars in the United States reached the 250,000 unit milestone.
global cumulative sales of the Tesla Model S passed the 50,000 unit milestone in October 2014.
in November 2014 the Renault–Nissan Alliance reached 200,000 all-electric vehicles delivered globally, representing a 58% share of the global light-duty all-electric market segment.
the world's top selling all-electric cars in 2014 were the Nissan Leaf (61,507), Tesla Model S (31,655), BMW i3 (16,052), and the Renault Zoe (11,323).
accounting for plug-in hybrids, the Leaf and the Model S also ranked first and second correspondingly among the world's top 10 selling plug-in electric cars.
all-electric models released to the retail customers in 2014 include the BMW Brilliance Zinoro 1E, Chery eQ, Geely-Kandi Panda EV, Zotye Zhidou E20, Kia Soul EV, Volkswagen e-Golf, Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive, and Venucia e30.
General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt EV concept car at the 2015 North American International Auto Show.
the Bolt is scheduled for availability in late 2016 as a model year 2017.
GM anticipates the Bolt will deliver an all-electric range more than 320 km (200 miles), with pricing starting at US$37,500 before any applicable government incentives.
the European version, marketed as the Opel Ampera-e, will go into production in 2017.
in May 2015, global sales of highway legal all-electric passenger cars and light utility vehicles passed the 500,000 unit milestone, accounting for sales since 2008.
out these, Nissan accounts for about 35%, Tesla Motors about 15%, and Mitsubishi about 10%.
also in May 2015, the Renault Zoe and the BMW i3 passed the 25,000 unit global sales milestone.
in June 2015, worldwide sales of the Model S passed the 75,000 unit milestone in June 2015.
by early June 2015, the Renault–Nissan Alliance continued as the leading all-electric vehicle manufacturer with global sales of over 250,000 pure electric vehicles representing about half of the global light-duty all-electric market segment.
Nissan sales totaled 185,000 units, which includes the Nissan Leaf and the e-NV200 van.
Renault has sold 65,000 electric vehicles, and its line-up includes the ZOE passenger car, the Kangoo Z.E. van, the SM3 Z.E. (previously Fluence Z.E.) sedan and the Twizy heavy quadricycle.
by mid-September 2015, the global stock of highway legal plug-in electric passenger cars and utility vans passed the one million sales milestone, with the pure electrics capturing about 62% of global sales.
the United States is the plug-in segment market leader with a stock of over 363,000 plug-in electric cars delivered since 2008 through August 2015, representing 36.3% of global sales.
the state of California is the largest plug-in car regional market, with more than 158,000 units sold between December 2010 and June 2015, representing 46.5% of all plug-in cars sold in the U.S.
Until December 2014, California not only had more plug-in electric vehicles than any other state in the nation, but also more than any other country.
As of August 2015, China ranked as the world's second top selling country plug-in market, with over 157,000 units sold since 2011 (15.7%), followed by Japan with more than 120,000 plug-in units sold since 2009 (12.1%).
as of June 2015, over 310,000 light-duty plug-in electric vehicles have been registered in the European market since 2010.
European sales are led by Norway, followed by the Netherlands, and France.
in the heavy-duty segment, China is the world's leader, with over 65,000 buses and other commercial vehicles sold through August 2015.
as of December 2015, global sales of electric cars were led by the Nissan Leaf with over 200,000 units sold making the Leaf the world's top selling highway-capable electric car in history.
the Tesla Model S, with global deliveries of more than 100,000 units, is the world's second best selling all-electric car of all-time.
the Model S ranked as the world's best selling plug-in electric vehicle in 2015, up from second best in 2014.
the Model S was also the top selling plug-in car in the U.S. in 2015.
most models released in the world's markets to retail customers during 2015 were plug-in hybrids.
the only new series production all electric cars launched up to October 2015 were the BYD e5 and the Tesla Model X, together with several variants of the Tesla Model S line up.
the Tesla Model 3 was unveiled on 31 March 2016, with pricing starting at US$35,000 and an all-electric range of 345 km (215 miles), the Model 3 is Tesla Motors first vehicle aimed for the mass market. Before the unveiling event, over 115,000 people had reserved the Model 3.
as of 7 April 2016, one week after the event, Tesla Motors reported over 325,000 reservations, more than triple the 107,000 Model S cars Tesla had sold by the end of 2015, these reservations represent potential sales of over US$14 billion.
as of 31 March 2016, Tesla Motors has sold almost 125,000 electric cars worldwide since delivery of its first Tesla Roadster in 2008.
Tesla reported the number of net reservations totaled about 373,000 as of 15 May 2016, after about 8,000 customer cancellations and about 4,200 reservations canceled by the automaker because these appeared to be duplicates from speculators.
the Hyundai Ioniq Electric was released in South Korea in July 2016, and sold over 1,000 units during its first two months in the market.
the Renault-Nissan Alliance achieved the milestone of 350,000 electric vehicles sold globally in August 2016, and also set an industry record of 100,000 electric vehicle sold in a single year.
Nissan global electric vehicle sales passed the 250,000 unit milestone also in August 2016.
Renault global electric vehicle sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in early September 2016, Global sales of the Tesla Model X passed the 10,000 unit mark in August 2016, with most cars delivered in the United States.
cumulative global sales of pure electric passenger cars and utility vans passed the 1 million unit milestone in September 2016.
global sales of the Tesla Model S achieved the 150,000 unit milestone in November 2016, four years and five months after its introduction, and just five more months than it took the Nissan Leaf to achieve the same milestone.
Norway achieved the milestone of 100,000 all-electric vehicles registered in December 2016, retail deliveries of the 383 km (238 miles) Chevrolet Bolt EV began in the San Francisco Bay Area on 13 December 2016.
retail deliveries of the 383 km (238 miles) Chevrolet Bolt EV began in the San Francisco Bay Area on 13 December 2016.
in December 2016, Nissan reported that Leaf owners worldwide achieved the milestone of 3 billion km (1.9 billion miles) driven collectively through November 2016, saving the equivalent of nearly 500 million kg (1,100 million lb) of Co2 emissions.
global Nissan Leaf sales passed 250,000 units delivered in December 2016.
the Tesla Model S was the world's best-selling plug-in electric car in 2016 for the second year running, with 50,931 units delivered globally.
In December 2016, Norway became the first country where 5% of all registered passenger cars was a plug-in electric.
when new car sales in Norway are breakdown by powertrain or fuel, nine of the top ten best-selling models in 2016 were electric-drive models, the Norwegian electric-drive segment achieved a combined market share of 40.2% of new passenger car sales in 2016, consisting of 15.7% for all-electric cars, 13.4% for plug-in hybrids, and 11.2% for conventional hybrids.
a record monthly market share for the plug-in electric passenger segment in any country was achieved in Norway in January 2017 with 37.5% of new car sales; the plug-in hybrid segment reached a 20.0% market share of new passenger cars, and the all-electric car segment had a 17.5% market share.
also in January 2017, the electrified passenger car segment, consisting of plug-in hybrids, all-electric cars and conventional hybrids, for the first time ever surpassed combined sales of cars with a conventional diesel or gasoline engine, with a market share of 51.4% of new car sales that month.
for many years Norwegian electric vehicles have been subsidised by approximately 50%, and have several other benefits, such as use of bus lanes and free parking.[175] Many of these perks have been extended to 2020.
in February 2017 Consumer Reports named Tesla as the top car brand in the United States and ranked it 8th among global carmakers.
deliveries of the Tesla Model S passed the 200,000 unit milestone during the fourth quarter of 2017.
global sales of the Nissan Leaf achieved the 300,000 unit milestone in January 2018.
in September 2018, the Norwegian market share of all-electric cars reached 45.3% and plug in hybrids 14.9%, for a combined market share of the plug in car segment of 60.2% of new car registrations that month, becoming the world's highest-ever monthly market share for the plug-in electric passenger segment in Norway and in any country.
accounting for conventional hybrids, the electrified segment achieved an all time record 71.5% market share in September 2018.
in October 2018, Norway became the first country where 1 in every 10 passenger cars registered is a plug in electric vehicle.
norway ended 2018 with plug-in market share of 49.1%, meaning that every second new passenger car sold in the country in 2018 was a plug-in electric, the market share for the all-electric segment was 31.2% in 2018.
Tesla delivered its 100,000th Model 3 in October 2018, U.S. sales of the Model 3 reached the 100,000 unit milestone in November 2018, quicker than any previous model sold in the country.
the Model 3 was the top-selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. for 12 consecutive months since January 2018, ending 2018 as the best selling plug in with an estimated all time record of 139,782 units delivered, the first time a plug in car sold more than 100 thousand units in a single year.
the Tesla Model 3 was also the world's best selling plug in electric car in 2018, in January 2019, with 148,046 units sold since inception in the American market, the Model 3 overtook the Model S to become the all time best selling all electric car in the U.S.
the global stock of plug in electric passenger cars reached 5.1 million units in December 2018, consisting of 3.3 million all electric cars (65%) and 1.8 million plug in hybrid cars (35%).
the global ratio between BEVs and PHEVs has been shifting towards fully electric cars, it went from 56:44 in 2012, to 60:40 in 2015, and rose to 69:31 in 2018.
despite the rapid growth experienced, the plug-in electric car segment represented just about 1 out of every 250 motor vehicles on the world's roads at the end of 2018.

so that was the history of the electric car, the EV has come quite a long ways, from electric horseless carriages to modern day electric powered funmobiles with futuristic styling, if there's anything that played a big roll in helping to keep pollution down to minimum?, it's the electric vehicle, while there's no telling what the future will hold for anything in this world, one thing's for sure, there will soon be a time when fossil fuels will stop filling the automobile's belly, and when that happens?, over 120 plus years of automotive legend and tradition will fly out tailpipe into memory and tailpipe with it, and throaty and grunty growl of an internal combustion engine whether it be the V8 or the legendary Audi 5 cylinder engine will soon be replaced with soft electric whsitle almost reminiscent of a bird, and of course the world will sound a little more quiet too.
well Kent that's all for this review, thank you for your help. X3

Kent Fox: my help?, I didn't do anything, all I did was sit here and watch you talk to a computer screen while I handed you talking cards DX

precisely Kent, now run along I must work on the next now

Kent Fox: wait, you're just done with me and gonna throw me out just like that?

sports the Raiden outfit with lightning be gone with you mortal!

Kent Fox: you know that's just a cheap halloween costume you're wearing and a flashlight you're using for lightning flash effects right?

:(....pfft, you just had to suck out the fun didn't you?

Kent Fox: well I just...pointing it out, it's really intimidating me at all

:(....spoiled sport! walks away huffy

Kent Fox: eh, whatever, I'm gonna go home now, thanks for nothing

photo of the earth belongs to Phys.org and is being used with the intent of fair use under the fair use law
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-earth-hybrid-planet-classification-anthropocene.html

and a little I want to share for laughs to get everyone in the mood for earth day :3
https://youtu.be/pvuN_WvF1to