Henry Ford put America on gasoline, then kept buying his wife electric cars. 🔌 Clara Ford's 1914 Detroit Electric needed no hand crank to start and left no exhaust smoke in its wake. She wasn't alone in choosing batteries. ⚡ Around 1900, roughly a third of the cars on American roads were electric, and Thomas Edison chose a Baker Electric as his first automobile. Then electricity began working for gasoline. Cadillac introduced its electric self starter in 1912, hand cranks gradually faded away, and battery cars surrendered a major selling point. But electric cars kept finding another opening. 🚗 The 1959 Henney Kilowatt tucked its batteries into a French Renault Dauphine. Sebring, Florida, brought the wedge shaped CitiCar to life in 1974, amid queues for gasoline. In 1987, GM's Sunraycer raced across Australia on sunshine alone, winning by two and a half days ☀️. Its builders later developed the prototype behind the 1996 EV1, which GM offered through leases, never sales. The 2008 Tesla Roadster made electric driving feel thrilling. Ten years later, another Roadster was circling the Sun 🚀. In 2023, Tesla's Model Y topped worldwide car sales, including gasoline models. Now the 2026 Rivian R2 rolls out of Normal, Illinois, with a rear window that lowers like the family station wagons of old 🚙. After more than a century of comebacks, the electric car finally fits the name of its hometown. #AmericanCarHistory #ElectricCarHistory #AmericanCars #Tesla #Rivian