Possibly in 1834, Robert Anderson of Scotland created the first electric carriage. The following year, a small electric car was built by the team of Professor Stratingh of Groningen, Holland and his assistant, Christopher Becker. More practical electric vehicles were brought onto the road by both American Thomas Davenport (1802-51) and Scotsman Robert Davidson (1804-1894) circa 1842. Both of these inventors introduced non- rechargeable electric cells in the electric car.
The Parisian engineer Charles Jentaud fitted a carriage with an electric motor in 1881. William Edward Ayrton and John Perry, professors at the London's City and Guilds Institute, began road trials with an electrical tricycle in 1882; three years later a battery-driven electric cab serviced Brighton. Around 1900, internal combustion engines were only one of three competing-technologies for propelling cars. Steam engines were used, while electric vehicles were clean, quiet, and did not smell. In the United States, electric cabs dominated in major cities for several years.
The electric vehicle did not fail because of the limited range of batteries or their weight. Historian Michel Schiffer and others maintain, rather, that failed business strategies were more important. Thus, most motor cars in the twentieth century relied on internal combustion, except for niche applications such as urban deliveries. At the end of the century, after several efforts from small manufacturers, General Motors made available an all-electric vehicle called EV1 from 1996 to 2003. In the late 1990s, Toyota and Honda introduced hybrid vehicles combining internal combustion engines and batteries.
