<P> At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in electric and other alternative fuel vehicles has increased due to growing concern over the problems associated with hydrocarbon - fueled vehicles, including damage to the environment caused by their emissions, and the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon - based transportation infrastructure as well as improvements in electric vehicle technology . Since 2010, combined sales of all - electric cars and utility vans achieved 1 million units delivered globally in September 2016 . </P> <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 locomotive 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>

When was the first modern electric car made