Whilst the momentum for battery-powered electric vehicles has been building for over a decade, 2026 was the year when it seemed to tip over and become the clear future of personal transportation.

This has natural implications for the entire battery production ecosystem, from raw materials suppliers to dealer networks, but what is particularly fascinating is that following so many attempts, new electric vehicles are selling in higher numbers than petrol cars.

The International Energy Agency reported record sales in Europe, Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, India and Brazil amongst many other countries, with sales increasing 35 per cent in the three months leading up to late July.

The foundations of this electric future were laid over a century ago, thanks to countless forgotten pioneers, unfortunate twists of fate and ideas too far ahead of their time.

Here are some of the most important and how they led to the creation of modern EVs.

 

How Did The Baker Electric Inspire Modern EVs

Whilst not the first electric car ever, the Baker Electric was the first EV success story, having produced 800 cars by 1906 and proving that there was a market for electric cars from the very start of the history of the automobile.

Thomas Edison, the inventor and electrical entrepreneur, bought one of the earliest models and designed nickel-iron batteries that were meant to be part of an EV future envisioned as early as the 1900s.

Unfortunately, the Ford Model T launched in 1908, radically transforming what a car needed to be able to do and pushing EVs into a distinct city car niche that it would remain in for almost a century.

 

How Did The Detroit Electric Inspire Modern EVs?

Detroit Electric was for decades the best-selling consumer electric car company, building over 13,000 electric cars between 1907 and 1939.

Many of their vehicles were iterations of each other, which has led to some confusion as to whether they should be classified as separate cars or as part of one uninterrupted production run.

Whilst Detroit also struggled against the long-lasting and world-changing Model T, it still managed to find success as a city car and a suburban vehicle that cemented a niche that would not be matched for nearly a century.

 

How Did The Enfield 8000 Nearly Change Motoring?

Described as the world’s first electric car, despite the existence of several other production EVs 

over half a century before it, the Enfield 8000 was an earnest attempt to create a successful production electric car that could have possibly succeeded.

Enfield Automotive was the brainchild of Giannis Goulandris, a Greek millionaire who had the idea of designing an electric car in the UK before building it in his native Greece.

The car itself, with a 6 kW motor, a top speed of 48mph and a range of roughly 40 miles, was limited but had the potential to sell as a second car for going to the shops during an era where two-car families were more normal.

However, the insistence on building it on the Greek island of Syros, a country which at the time did not legally allow the sale of electric cars, ultimately led to production moving to the Isle of Wight.

This would be one complication too far, and only 120 cars were sold, 65 of which to the Electricity Board.

 

Sinclair C5

The influence of the Sinclair C5 on modern electric vehicles has reached the point where it can be difficult to consider it a forgotten pioneer, but what is unusual about Sir Clive Sinclair’s electric trike is that it was remarkably close to succeeding in spite of everything.

For decades it was seen as not only a resolute failure treated as a combination of a joke and a death trap, but in a world where electric cars have thrived in a way Sir Clive had envisioned, it has been somewhat reevaluated.

The Sinclair C5 was originally envisaged as a very different kind of personal transport, designed around a loophole in electric bicycle laws at the time that allowed electric vehicles with fewer than four wheels and with pedals to be driven by anyone over the age of 14 with no driving licence.

Unfortunately, an initial winter demonstration at Alexandra Palace exposed all of its weaknesses at once, and its name would be commonly echoed in the British press whenever a new EV was promoted and sold.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, the C5 was ahead of its time, and with proper support and a much better marketing campaign, could have been a huge success even with its limited lead-acid batteries.