Could this be the world's first electric car? Thomas Parker was a Victorian inventor who claimed to have invented the vehicle.
For a few decades in the 1800s, electric engines enjoyed great popularity because they were quiet and ran at slow speeds that were less likely to scare horses and people. By 1899 an electric car designed and driven by Belgian inventor Camille Jenatzy set a record of 105.8810 km/h (65.79 mph).
Early electric cars featured a large bank of storage batteries under the hood. Heavy cables connected the batteries to a motor between the front and rear axles. Most electric cars had top speeds of 48 km/h (30 mph), but could go only 80 km (50 mi) before their batteries needed recharging. Electric automobiles were manufactured in quantity in the United States until 1930.
The world's first electric car may have been built by a Victorian inventor.
Newly unearthed photos show what appears to be an electric vehicle built in the year 1884.
To the modern eye the machine looks like a horseless carriage, but sitting aboard at the wheel is the 19th century inventor Thomas Parker.
Mr Parker electrified the London Underground and created overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite.
He claimed he had invented the electric car and he also had a hand in refining car batteries for petrol-powered models. He died in December 1915.
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