<P> The invention of the first model electric vehicle is attributed to various people . In 1828, Ányos Jedlik, a Hungarian who invented an early type of electric motor, created a small model car powered by his new motor . In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a similar contraption which operated on a short, circular, electrified track . In 1834, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker created a small - scale electrical car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells . </P> <P> The first known electric car was built in 1837, in Scotland by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen . It was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Davidson later built a larger locomotive named Galvani, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841 . The 7,100 - kilogram (7 - long - ton) vehicle had two direct - drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of 6,100 kilograms (6 long tons) at 6.4 kilometres per hour (4 mph) for a distance of 2.4 km (1.5 miles). It was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use . It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their security of employment . </P> <P> Between 1832 and 1839, Scottish inventor Robert Anderson also invented a crude electrical carriage . A patent for the use of rails as conductors of electric current was granted in England in 1840, and similar patents were issued to Lilley and Colten in the United States in 1847 . </P> <P> Rechargeable batteries that provided a viable means for storing electricity on board a vehicle did not come into being until 1859, with the invention of the lead--acid battery by French physicist Gaston Planté . Camille Alphonse Faure, another French scientist, significantly improved the design of the battery in 1881; his improvements greatly increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacture on an industrial scale . </P>

When was the first electric car made in the usa