The Innovation of Electric Cars and Its Commercial Impact Essay

The Innovation of Electric Cars and Its Commercial Impact - Essay Example The researcher states that the electric car industry started with the development of the first electric car models and has grown to a bigger and a wider industry today. The first people to develop the electric cars originated from such countries as the Netherlands, United States, and Hungary. They invented with the idea of using a battery to power a vehicle that enabled them to develop small-scale electric vehicles. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, the first practical electric car was designed the French and the English innovators. In the US, William Morrison was among the first people to come up with an electric car in 1890. The popularity of these vehicles started growing in 1900. In the same period, the electric cars occupied a third of all the vehicles on the road in the United States. The electric car industry before 1900 was composed of the few models of the ancient innovators. For instance, Ferdinand Porsche developed an electric car in 1898 called P1. Today, Ferdinand Por sche is the founder of a sports car company. Companies started having an interest in the industry in the year 1900 after many factors convinced many companies to invest in an electric car. Such factors included the ever increasing costs of fuel and the environmental pollution by the cars that used gasoline. Henry Ford, who is the founder of the Ford Company, produced an electric car called Model T that came as a blow to the auto industry because it cost almost the same as any other car. For instance, in the year 1912, cars using gasoline cost $650 while the Model T car cost $1750. Due to increased development and discoveries of the gas oil, the production of electric cars declined until the 1960s when it revived. The cheap prices of gasoline had also made the demand for electric cars decrease hindering other companies from investing in the industry. In the 1970s, the American Motor Company and GM Motor Company produced electric cars. This signaled the revival of the electric car ind ustry.