3.1 1900 to 1939

• For the early history of electric powered cars see Part 1, Section 4.
  
  
• In 1912 there were 34,000 electric cars registered in the U.S., at which point annual sales started to decline.
  
  
• By 1913 sales of electric cars in the U.S. had reduced to 6,000. By comparison nearly 183,000 gasoline powered Model T Ford cars were sold that year.
  
  
• Between the mid 1890s and 2007 at least 280 companies and a few individuals (the best known being the American inventor Thomas Edison) had produced electric powered cars.
  
  
• Possibly as many as 60% of these companies had ceased operating by 1919.
  
  
• Many of these early electric carmakers typically operating for only 2 to 5 years.
  
  
• The majority of the early electric carmakers were located in the U.S.A.
  
  
• Other countries known to have produced electric cars between 1893 and 1920 are: Austria (1), Belgium (1), France (5), Germany (8), Great Britain (9), Italy (2) and Switzerland (1).
  
  
• In 1907 the Anderson Carriage Company in the U.S.A started production of an electric car with the brand name “Detroit Electric”.
  
  
• Their first electric car was powered by a rechargeable lead acid battery, with a nickel-iron battery available as an optional extra from 1911 to 1916. 2P1
  
  
• The company claimed the cars had a range of 80 miles (130 km) on a single charge and a top speed of about 20 mph (32 kph).
  
  
• The company changed its name in 1911 to the Anderson Electric Car Company and again in 1920 to the Detroit Electric Car Company.
  
  
• Between 1910 and 1920 production was at its peak, selling 1,000 to 2,000 cars a year.
  
  
• The final Detroit Electric car was produced in February 1939, with production during the last few years limited to an “as-ordered basis” only.
  
  
• It was one of longest production runs in the world for an electric car.
  
  
• The other early, longer established, electric car makers in the United States include Baker (1898-1915), Milburn (1914-1923), Rauch & Lang (1904-1915), Studebaker (1902-1912), Walker (1907-1916) and Woods, which between 1899 and 1919 , produced possibly as many as one thousand electric cars.
  
  
• During the 1920s and 1930s only about two-dozen electric car companies are known to have existed.