The Lohner Porsche with hub-mounted electric motor was first shown in 1900. (Supplied, Porsche)
As South African motorists are dragged, kicking and muttering, into acceptance of electric cars as a viable form of mobility, it is astounding to realise EVs actually pre-date petrol-driven cars!
It was way back in 1880 that Scottish immigrant William Morrison, a chemist by trade, developed the first electric car in the USA.
Morrison’s electric car was said to have a top speed of over 20km/h – and, what’s more, it pre-dated the first petrol car by a good half-a-dozen years. It is generally acknowledged that Carl Benz’s landmark internal combustion-engined machine, a three-wheeler, only went for its first public run in 1886.
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