With today's push for electric vehicles, what I find interesting is that prior to 1908 when Ford introduced the inexpensive model T, more than half the cars on the road were electric! The model T was less than half the price of the average electric at the time and when Kettering's starter was introduced on the Cadillac in 1912 and others shortly after, that, and John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co. pretty much tanked EV development.
Batteries are what tanked electric car development and are what has choked it ever since.
You just can not get the energy density needed to power a car over a useful distance.
So it was fine in the 1900's when the rich ( you had to be rich to own an electric car ) were using cars to replace their horses
And remember 20 miles was a long ride on a horse and 40 miles a full days travel in a coach .
Ever wondered why roads had villages every 30 miles or so ?
Because that was a coach travel distance apart, 1/2 day for galloping horses & a full day for a trotter.
Look at the battery pack under the seat of a golf buggy.
It was Lithium batteries that made electric cars viable , and not conspiracy from oil companies .
It is also lithium batteries makes electric cars an environmental disaster.
Ford proved that what the market wants is cheap first and reliability last
As such a cheap lead acid battery was never going to be replaced because they are very cheap to make and still the only part of a car that is both completely recycleable and profitable to do so .
I was in recycling in the 70's during the energy crisis when car companies were being pushed for better mileage and that is what caused the next leap in battery technology from rubber cases to HDPE cases and plates that were 2mm thick to PbAg plates that are 0.5mm thick which cut the weight of the battery by 2/3
