The first modern, mass-produced electric car from a major automaker was the General Motors EV1, launched in 1996 following California’s push for zero-emission vehicles, but it wasn’t the first electric car to exist. Way back in 1907, Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit built 13,000 electric cars. The "Electric" was advertised as reliably getting 80 miles between battery charges, although in one test an Electric ran 211.3 miles on a single charge. Top speed was around 20 mph, which was the normal average top speed for cars at that time. The Electric sold for an average of $1,700 ($53,653 today) as compared to $600 ($18,936 today) for a gas-powered vehicle. The company production was at its peak in the 1910s, selling around 2,000 cars a year. Toward the end of the decade, the Electric was helped by the high price of gasoline during World War I, and in 1920 the name of the Anderson Electric Car Company was changed to The Detroit Electric Car Company. As improved internal combustion engine automobiles became more common and inexpensive in the 1920s, sales of the Electric dropped. The last Detroit Electric was shipped on February 23, 1939, though they were still available until 1942.
