Timeline of electric vehicles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a timeline of electric vehicles, including cars, bicycles, aircraft and watercraft.
1875
- World's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky.[1][2]
1880s
- Immisch & Co, established by Moritz Immisch, establishes an electric boat department - probably the world's first fleet of electric launches for hire, with a chain of electrical charging stations established along the River Thames.
1881
- World's first commercially successful electric tram, the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883.
1882
- The trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his "Elektromote" in a Berlin suburb. This experiment continued until 13 June 1882.
- Anthony Reckenzaun designs the first significant electric launch driven by storage batteries, and names the boat Electricity.[3]
1883
- Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram, Vienna, Austria, first electric tram powered by overhead wire.
1884
- Thomas Parker built an electric car in Wolverhampton using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.
1888
- 8 September: Peral, the first successful submarine to be entirely powered by electric batteries and the first fully military-capable submarine, is launched.[4]
20th century
1970s
1973
1974
- AstroFlight Sunrise makes maiden flight, first aircraft to fly on solar power.[5]
1979
- The Mauro Solar Riser becomes the first crewed aircraft to fly on solar power.[6][7]
1990s
1996
- December: Launch of the limited production General Motors EV1[8][9]
1997
- Toyota RAV4 EV becomes first plug-in electric production SUV. Leases are mostly restricted to governments and businesses in California.[10]
- Toyota Prius becomes the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.[11]
1998
- Launch of Nissan Altra EV, becoming the first highway legal electric car to use lithium-ion batteries[12][13]
21st century
2000s
2003
- first certificate of airworthiness for an electric powered aircraft was granted to the Lange Antares 20E.[14]
2008
- Tesla Roadster becomes the first highway legal, serial production, all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car with a range of more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge.[15]
2009
- July: Launch of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the first modern highway legal series production electric car[16]
2010s
2010
- 8 July: Solar Impulse 1 achieves the world's first crewed 26-hour solar-powered flight, as well as the longest and highest ever flown by a crewed solar-powered aircraft.[17][18][19]
- December: Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt deliveries began[20]
2011
- The Nissan Leaf passed the Mitsubishi i MiEV as the world's all-time best selling all-electric car[21]
- Taurus Electro G2 becomes the first two-seat electric aircraft to have achieved series production.[22][23]
2012
- June:
2014
- March: 1% of all cars in use in Norway are plug-ins[27]
- first production-model all-electric school bus was delivered[28] to the Kings Canyon Unified School District in California's San Joaquin Valley
2015
- 3 July: Solar Impulse 2 lands in Hawaii on 3 July, setting new records for the world's longest solar-powered flight both by time (117 hours, 52 minutes) and distance (7,212 km; 4,481 mi). The flight's duration was also a record for longest solo flight, by time, for any aircraft.[29][30][31]
- September: Cumulative global plug-in sales passed 1 million units.[32]
2016
- June 20-23: Solar Impulse 2 makes the first non-stop solar-powered transatlantic flight[33]
- July: Solar Impulse 2 lands in Abu Dhabi, completing circumnavigation of the world
- November: Global all-electric car/van sales passed 1 million.[34]
- December:
2017
- Early: 1 millionth domestic new energy car sold in China[37][38]
- July: Launch of the Tesla Model 3[39]
- November: Cumulative global plug-in sales passed 3 million units[40]
- December:
2018
- First half: 1 millionth plug-in electric car sold in Europe[43]
- September:
- October: 10% of passenger cars on Norwegian roads are plug-ins[46]
- November: 500,000th plug-in car sold in California[47]
- December:
- Annual global sales passed the 2 million unit mark[48][49]
- Tesla Model 3 becomes first plug-in to exceed 100,000 sales in a single year[50]
2019
- December: One out of two new passenger cars registered in Norway in 2019 was a plug-in electric car[51]
2020s
2020
- Early: The Tesla Model 3 surpassed the Nissan Leaf as the world's best selling plug-in electric car in history[52]
- March:
- The Tesla Model 3 is the first electric car to sell more than 500,000 units since inception.[53]
- Tesla, Inc. becomes the first auto manufacturer to produce 1 million electric cars[54]
- April: 10% of all cars on the road in Norway are all-electric[55]
- June: the Velis Electro variant of the two-seat Pipistrel Virus was the first electric aircraft to secure type certification, from the EASA[56]
- December:
2021
- September: Rivian R1T becomes the first plug-in electric production pickup truck.[citation needed]
2022
- May: Cumulative global plug-in car sales passed the 20 million unit milestone[61]
2023
- January: EV cars surpass 10% in global market share[62]
- May: Tesla Model Y becomes the world's best selling vehicle[63]
2025
- June: Kyle Clark, the founder and CEO of the Burlington, Vermont-based company BETA Technologies, piloted the Alia CX300 to the John F. Kennedy International Airport tarmack, concluding a 45-minute, 72-nautical mile-flight that took off from East Hampton, accomplishing the first-ever passenger flight of an electric-powered plane in North America.[64][65]
References
- ↑ Pyrgidis, C.N. (2016). Railway Transportation Systems: Design, Construction and Operation. Florida: CRC Press. p. 156.
- ↑ Petrova, Ye.N. (2003). St. Petersburg in Focus: Photographers of the Turn of the Century; in Celebration of the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg. Palace Ed. p. 12. ISBN 9785933321149.
- ↑ Illustrated with wood engravings in the Electrical Review, Vol.XI, No.255, 14 October 1882, pp.296 and 297
- ↑ elmundo.es. "Isaac Peral, el genio frustrado". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ Boucher, Roland (n.d.). "Project Sunrise pg 1". Archived from the original on 2015-03-13. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
- ↑ Experimental Aircraft Association (2011). "UFM/MAURO SOLAR RISER". Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- ↑ AIAA/SAE/ASME 20th Joint Propulsion Conference (1984). "AIAA paper 84-1429" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ Quiroga, Tony (August 2009). "Driving the Future". Car and Driver. p. 52.
- ↑ Dean, Paul; Reed, Mack (1996-12-06). "An Electric Start – Media, Billboards, Web Site Herald Launch of the EV1". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ↑ Demuro, Doug (17 May 2019). "The Toyota RAV4 EV Has Had Two Obscure Generations". Autotrader. Archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024. Retrieved 22 Sep 2024.
- ↑ Clifford, Joe (10 February 2015). "History of the Toyota Prius". Toyota Blog. UK. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
- ↑ "California Commuter". EV World. 2001-01-31. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
- ↑ The Nissan Altra EV - Nissan Launching Electrick Minivan
- ↑ 06.09.2011: SWR.de The Research Aircraft Antares DLR H2 and Antares H3 Archived 2006-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Shahan, Zachary (April 26, 2015). "Electric Car Evolution". Clean Technica. Retrieved September 8, 2016. 2008: The Tesla Roadster becomes the first production electric vehicle to use lithium-ion battery cells as well as the first production electric vehicle to have a range of over 200 miles on a single charge.
- ↑ Kim, Chang-Ran (2010-03-30). "Mitsubishi Motors lowers price of electric i-MiEV". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ↑ Maron, Dina Fine (6 July 2010). "Swiss Team to Launch Solar Night Flight". The New York Times. ClimateWire. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ↑ "Solar Impulse completes record-breaking flight". The Daily Telegraph. London. 8 July 2010. Archived from the original on 9 July 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ↑ Paur, Jason (7 July 2010). "Solar Airplane to Fly Through the Night (Tonight!)". Wired. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ↑ Cobb, Jeff (10 December 2014). "Retrospective: Four Years of Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt". HybridCars.com. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
- ↑ Guinness World Records (2012). "Best-selling electric car". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ↑ "Taurus Electro – Overview". Pipistrel Aircraft. Archived from the original on 2 September 2011.
- ↑ "A journey through the history of electric aircraft – It is almost half a century since the first manned, electrically propelled flight". Arts.eu. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- ↑ "Solar plane completes maiden intercontinental trip". Reuters. 5 June 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ↑ "Solar Impulse Completes World Record Flight from Spain to Morocco". CleanTechnica. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
- ↑ John Boudreau (22 June 2012). "In a Silicon Valley milestone, Tesla Motors begins delivering Model S electric cars". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
- ↑ Klippenstein, Matthew (8 April 2014). "One Percent of Norway's Cars Are Already plug-ins". Green Car Reports. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
- ↑ Dechert, Sandy (5 March 2014). "New All-Electric School Bus Saves California District $10,000+ Per Year". cleantechnica.com. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
- ↑ Archangel, Amber."Solar Impulse Sets World Record: 117 Hours & 52 Minutes – Longest Solo Flight Ever". cleantechnica.com. 6 July 2015.
- ↑ The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) website states that the "Free distance along course" was 7,039.9 km. FAI Record ID #17595 Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Retrieved 29 July 2015
- ↑ The FAI does not record this record as official, since the FAI does not have an "any aircraft" category. See "FAI records page", Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, 29 July 2015
- ↑ Jeff Cobb (16 September 2015). "One Million Global Plug-In Sales Milestone Reached". HybridCars.com. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
- ↑ Carrington, Damian (2016-06-23). "Solar Impulse 2 completes first ever Atlantic crossing by solar plane". The Guardian.
- ↑ Shahan, Zachary (2016-11-22). "1 Million Pure EVs Worldwide: EV Revolution Begins!". Clean Technica. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
- ↑ Cobb, Jeff (16 January 2017). "The World Just Bought Its Two-Millionth Plug-in Car". hybridcars.com. Retrieved 17 January 2017. An estimated 2,032,000 highway-legal plug-in passenger cars and vans have been sold worldwide at the end of 2016. The top selling markets are China (645,708 new energy cars, including imports), Europe (638,000 EVs), and the United States (570,187 plug-in cars). The top European country markets are Norway (135,276), the Netherlands (113,636), France (108,065), and the UK (91,000). Total Chinese sales of domestically produced new energy vehicles, including buses and truck, totaled 951,447 vehicles. China was the top selling EV market in 2016, and also has the world's largest stock of plug-in cars.
- ↑ Cobb, Jeff (2017-01-17). "Top 10 Plug-in Vehicle Adopting Countries of 2016". hybridcars.com. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
- ↑ Cobb, Jeff (2016-09-28). "China Buys Half-Millionth Passenger Plug-in Car; On Track To Surpass US". hybridcars.com. Retrieved 2016-09-28. Sales of new energy vehicles totaled 689,447 units between 2011 and August 2016. Cumulative sales of new energy passenger cars totaled 493,290 units between 2010 and August 2016.
- ↑ Automotive News China (2018-01-16). "Electrified vehicle sales surge 53% in 2017". Automotive News China. Retrieved 2020-05-22. Chinese sales of domestically-built new energy vehicles in 2017 totaled 777,000
- ↑ Krok, Andrew (29 July 2017). "By the numbers: Tesla Model 3 vs. Chevrolet Bolt EV". CNET. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
- ↑ Vaughan, Adam (2017-12-25). "Electric and plug-in hybrid cars whiz past 3m mark worldwide". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-01-20. "The number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars on the world’s roads passed the 3 million mark in November 2017."
- 1 2 Jose, Pontes (29 January 2018). "World Top 20 December 2017 (Updated)". EV Sales. Retrieved 17 February 2018. "Global sales totaled 1,224,103 plug-in cars in 2017, with a market share of over 1%."
- ↑ Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) (January 2018). "Tredje største bilsalgsåret i historien" [Third largest car sales year in history] (in Norwegian). OFV. Archived from the original on 20 October 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
- ↑ "Electric cars exceed 1m in Europe as sales soar by more than 40%". The Guardian. 26 August 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ↑ Kane, Mark (6 October 2018). "Plug-In Electric Cars Sales in U.S. Surpass 1 Million". InsideEVs. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ↑ Automotive News China (23 October 2018). "China's electrified vehicle fleet tops 2.21 million". Automotive News China. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
China's fleet of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids topped 2.21 million by the end of September as sales of electrified vehicles continued to surge in the country. Of the total, EVs accounted for 1.78 million, or nearly 81 per cent. The rest were plug-in hybrids, China's Ministry of Public Security said this week. Electrified cargo vehicles—which include trucks, pickups and delivery vans—approached 254,000, representing 11 per cent of the electrified vehicle fleet as of last month.
- ↑ Kane, Mark (7 October 2018). "10% Of Norway's Passenger Vehicles Are Plug Ins". InsideEVs.com. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ↑ Szczesny, Joseph (11 December 2018). "Sales of Electric Vehicles Growing Steadily in California". The Detroit Bureau. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
- ↑ Jose, Pontes (2019-01-31). "Global Top 20 - December 2018". EVSales.com. Retrieved 2019-01-31. "Global sales totaled 2,018,247 plug-in passenger cars in 2018, with a BEV:PHEV ratio of 69:31, and a market share of 2.1%. The world's top selling plug-in car was the Tesla Model 3, and Tesla was the top selling manufacturer of plug-in passenger cars in 2018, followed by BYD."
- ↑ Deloitte UK (21 January 2019). "21 million more electric vehicles expected worldwide by 2030". Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Press release). UK. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
2018 a record year for electric vehicles as two million units sold globally
- ↑ Routley, Nick (16 March 2019). "Visualizing EV Sales Around the World". Visual Capitalist. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ↑ Kane, Mark (2020-01-04). "In 2019, Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Norway Increased By 10%". InsideEVs.com. Retrieved 2020-05-22. The Norwegian market share for the plug-in car segment was 55.9% in 2019
- ↑ Holland, Maximilian (2020-02-10). "Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone & Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller". CleanTechnica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ↑ Holland, Maximilian (2020-02-10). "Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone & Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller". CleanTechnica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ↑ Lambert, Fred (2020-03-10). "Tesla produces its 1 millionth electric car". Electrek. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
- ↑ Hill, Joshua S. (2020-06-25). "Thanks to electric cars, Norway will reach climate target in 2020". The Driven. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
The share of electric cars on Norway's roads reached more than 10% of the total fleet in April
- ↑ Kate Sarsfield (10 June 2020). "Pipistrel Velis Electro earns first all-electric aircraft type certification". Flightglobal.
- ↑ Nissan (2020-12-03). "Nissan marks 10 years of LEAF sales, with over 500,000 sold worldwide". Automotive World. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
Nissan today celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Nissan LEAF and the delivery of 500,000 LEAF vehicles since the model was first introduced. More than 148,000 have been sold in the United States
- ↑ Irle, Roland (19 January 2021). "Global Plug-in Vehicle Sales Reached over 3,2 Million in 2020". ev-volumes.com. Retrieved 9 July 2022. Plug-in sales totaled 3.24 million in 2020, up from 2.26 million in 2019. Europe, with nearly 1.4 million units surpassed China as the largest EV market for the first time since 2015.
- ↑ Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) (2021-01-05). "Bilsalget i desember og hele 2020" [Car sales in December and throughout 2020] (in Norwegian). OFV. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
- ↑ Haugneland, Petter (January 2021). "Personbilbestanden i Norge fordelt på drivstoff" [passenger car stock in Norway by fuel] (in Norwegian). Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association). Retrieved 2021-01-22. See graph under "Personbilbestanden i Norge fordelt på drivstoff" - As of 31 December 2020[update], there were 12.06% all-electric cars and 5.11% are plug-in hybrid cars in use on Norwegian roads. Combined, plug-in electric passenger cars represented 17.17% of all cars in circulation in the country, up from 13.45% in 2019.
- ↑ Bloomberg (2022-04-09). "World's electric vehicle fleet set to cross 20 million as adoption increases globally". The National. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
- ↑ Zinkula, Jacob. "Electric vehicles accounted for 10% of global auto sales last year — this could quadruple by 2030". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
- ↑ "The best selling car in Q1? The Tesla Model Y." Yahoo Finance. 2023-05-30. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
- ↑ Maldonado, Zinnia (June 3, 2025). "Local News All-electric aircraft makes historic landing at JFK Airport". CBS News. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ↑ Zimmerman, Will (June 3, 2025). "Whisper-quiet electric helicopter-plane could turn NYC into 'The Jetsons'". New York Post. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
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