The Boom-Bust Cycle of Electric Vehicles: 1890s vs. 2020s
Or, How We Are Repeating the Past with the Enthusiasm of a Man Who Has Forgotten His Own History
Electric vehicles! That most futuristic of inventions, that dazzling beacon of progress, that mechanical messiah sent forth to deliver us from the tyranny of the internal combustion engine! How the modern world fawns over them, as though they are the very harbingers of the new age, the mechanical revolution that shall at last liberate humanity from its addiction to fossil fuels.
And yet—oh, dear reader, you knew this was coming—the tale of the electric vehicle is not new. No, no, no. This “revolution” is but an echo of a story already told, a spectacle already staged, a grand delusion that played out over a century ago. For electric vehicles, far from being the marvel of our time, were once the dominant force upon the roads, before they suffered a most ignominious defeat—one from which they have only now begun to claw their way back, with all the pomp and self-importance of a dethroned monarch returning from exile.
But let us not merely shake our heads at the folly of modernity—let us revel in it! Let us delve into this grand cycle of technological resurgence, examining why electric vehicles once ruled the streets, why they vanished into near oblivion, and why—despite all our self-congratulation—we may yet be doomed to repeat history’s mistakes once more.
Act I: The First Golden Age of Electric Vehicles (1890s–1920s)
Picture it, dear reader: the dawn of the automobile age! The streets are a chaotic battleground, filled with horse-drawn carriages, steam-powered contraptions, and those loud, obnoxious gasoline automobiles, forever belching clouds of smoke like a factory on legs. And yet, amidst this cacophony, a sophisticated alternative emerges—the electric car!
Yes! In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the electric vehicle was king. Elegant, silent, and free from the noxious fumes of its gasoline-powered rivals, the electric automobile was the preferred mode of transport for the refined, the affluent, and those with little patience for the violent, unpredictable nature of the infernal combustion engine.
Even one’s dear Aunt Agatha could manage an electric vehicle with ease! Unlike the gasoline car, which required strenuous cranking, the risk of broken limbs, and an advanced degree in mechanical engineering merely to operate, the electric car was effortless. It glided. It started at the push of a button. It did not explode.
Indeed, in the early 1900s, electric cars accounted for one-third of all vehicles on the road! The upper echelons of society—those paragons of good taste—adopted them with enthusiasm, preferring their civilized quietude over the clatter and fumes of petrol-powered rivals. Even the great Thomas Edison himself, that patron saint of ambitious tinkering, saw the electric vehicle as the inevitable future of transportation.
And then, as swiftly as their ascent, the electric chariots vanished.
Act II: The Great Extinction (1920s–2000s)
Ah, the tragic turn! The cruel reversal of fortune! The electric vehicle, once poised for dominance, found itself cast aside, outmaneuvered, and ultimately extinguished.
The reasons for this demise were many, but the primary culprit was none other than cheap gasoline. The Ford Model T, that brutish, petroleum-guzzling workhorse, emerged with a price tag so absurdly low that even the common man—hitherto condemned to travel by foot or horse—could afford to purchase one.
And so, like a horde of unwashed barbarians overrunning a decadent empire, gasoline-powered vehicles took over the roads.
The infrastructure followed suit. Gas stations—those grim altars to crude oil—sprang up across the land. Roads were built for the mighty gasoline engine, highways carved through landscapes, petroleum refining became an industry so vast and powerful that electric vehicles were, for all practical purposes, erased from history.
For decades, the electric vehicle was nothing more than a footnote, a forgotten relic, occasionally revived as a novelty but never taken seriously. Even when the oil crises of the 1970s briefly made them seem attractive once more, they were quickly dismissed—doomed by their short battery range, their sluggish performance, and the sheer momentum of gasoline-powered dominance.
The world, it seemed, had spoken: electric vehicles were a quaint failure, a technological curiosity from a bygone era.
Or so we thought.
Act III: The Resurrection (2000s–Present)
And then, as if jolted awake by some cosmic irony, the electric vehicle returned!
Much like a forgotten aristocrat emerging from exile, the electric car strode back onto the world stage, adorned in new technology, clad in the armor of lithium-ion batteries, and heralded as the savior of mankind’s environmental conscience.
The reasons for this resurgence were, once again, economic and practical. Oil prices fluctuated wildly. Climate change—long ignored by the petrol barons of the world—became impossible to dismiss. Governments, at last recognizing the long-term consequences of fossil fuel dependency, began offering incentives for electric vehicle adoption.
And then came Tesla—the upstart challenger, the enfant terrible of the automotive world—declaring, with all the bravado of a conquering general, that electric vehicles were no longer to be seen as quaint, but superior. Faster. More advanced. Unshackled from their historical reputation of being dull, slow, and uninspiring.
The public, ever eager for the latest shiny thing, fell in love anew. Electric cars became desirable, sleek, luxurious. Other automakers scrambled to compete. Charging stations replaced gas pumps in certain enlightened corners of the world. The cycle had, at last, begun anew.
But let us not be too hasty in our celebrations.
Act IV: Are We About to Repeat the Mistakes of the Past?
For all the self-congratulatory rhetoric surrounding electric vehicles today, one must ask: have we truly solved the problems that doomed them the first time?
Battery life remains a limitation—while far superior to their ancestors, today’s EVs are still constrained by charging times and infrastructure. Are we so sure that technological stagnation will not once again allow a rival technology to overtake them?
Infrastructure is still in transition—petrol stations vastly outnumber charging points. History teaches us that the dominant infrastructure often determines the dominant technology.
Supply chains are precarious—lithium, cobalt, and other materials required for EV batteries are finite and geopolitically fraught. Should shortages arise, will electric vehicles suffer the same fate as before?
And thus, dear reader, we must wonder: are we standing at the dawn of a true and lasting EV age, or merely another temporary boom, doomed to collapse once the tides of industry shift?
Shall electric vehicles reign forever, or will they once again fade into obscurity, leaving future historians to shake their heads at our short memory?
Only time shall tell.
But one thing is certain: this is not new. It never was. It never will be.
The road ahead may be electric, but it is a road we have traveled before.