Electric cars
Yesterday, I've read a very interesting report on electric cars on Spiegel Online (sadly, it's in German only; though the comments there are interesting: milk cars in the UK until the 1970s?)
It really, really surprised me that around 1912 or so about 40% of the cars in New York were electric ones - and then Charles Kettering invented the electric starter for gas-powered cars and the rest is history.
I'm not sure if "shocked" is the right term, but reading the article on wiki about how the first electric cars were running in the late 1890s already and that they were doing just fine (even though on short distance only), it really saddens me.
The industry wasted at least 80 years of invention, before they picked up working on electric cars again some time in the 1990s -.-
How far could we have gotten if people had continued working on electric cars? But no, as usual the petrol industry and their greed won.
So many wasted years and chances *sigh*
Why I find this interesting, apart from the obvious? I'll have my current car until March 2014 and I should probably start looking for another car late in 2013.
Hybrid or electric cars are a very valid option in my opinion.
It really, really surprised me that around 1912 or so about 40% of the cars in New York were electric ones - and then Charles Kettering invented the electric starter for gas-powered cars and the rest is history.
I'm not sure if "shocked" is the right term, but reading the article on wiki about how the first electric cars were running in the late 1890s already and that they were doing just fine (even though on short distance only), it really saddens me.
The industry wasted at least 80 years of invention, before they picked up working on electric cars again some time in the 1990s -.-
How far could we have gotten if people had continued working on electric cars? But no, as usual the petrol industry and their greed won.
So many wasted years and chances *sigh*
Why I find this interesting, apart from the obvious? I'll have my current car until March 2014 and I should probably start looking for another car late in 2013.
Hybrid or electric cars are a very valid option in my opinion.