science

Timeline of electric vehicles

Timeline of electric vehicles is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Timeline of electric vehicles rather than just read about it. In short: The following is a timeline of electric vehicles, including cars, bicycles, aircraft and watercraft. 19th century 1875 World's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky. 1880s Immisch & Co, established by Moritz Immisch, establishes an electric boat department - probably the world's first fleet of electric launches for hire, with a chain of…

Key takeaways

Timeline of electric vehicles belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Timeline of electric vehicles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Timeline of electric vehicles from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The following is a timeline of electric vehicles, including cars, bicycles, aircraft and watercraft.

19th century

1875 World's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky.

1880s Immisch & Co, established by Moritz Immisch, establishes an electric boat department - probably the world's first fleet of electric launches for hire, with a chain of electrical charging stations established along the River Thames.

1881 World's first commercially successful electric tram, the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883.

1882 The trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his "Elektromote" in a Berlin suburb. This experiment continued until 13 June 1882. Anthony Reckenzaun designs the first significant electric launch driven by storage batteries, and names the boat Electricity.

1883 Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram, Vienna, Austria, first electric tram powered by overhead wire.

1884 Thomas Parker built an electric car in Wolverhampton using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.

1888 8 September: Peral, the first successful submarine to be entirely powered by electric batteries and the first fully military-capable submarine, is launched.

20th century

1970s

1973 23 October: first crewed free flight by an electrically powered aeroplane, the MB-E1 (9 minutes)

1974 AstroFlight Sunrise makes maiden flight, first aircraft to fly on solar power.

1979 The Mauro Solar Riser becomes the first crewed aircraft to fly on solar power.

1990s

1996 December: Launch of the limited production General Motors EV1

1997 Toyota RAV4 EV becomes first plug-in electric production SUV. Leases are mostly restricted to governments and businesses in California. Toyota Prius becomes the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.

1998 Launch of Nissan Altra EV, becoming the first highway legal electric car to use lithium-ion batteries

21st century

2000s

2003 first certificate of airworthiness for an electric powered aircraft was granted to the Lange Antares 20E.

2008 Tesla Roadster becomes the first highway legal, serial production, all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car with a range of more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge.

2009 July: Launch of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the first modern highway legal series production electric car

2010s

2010 8 July: Solar Impulse 1 achieves the world's first crewed 26-hour solar-powered flight, as well as the longest and highest ever flown by a crewed solar-powered aircraft. December: Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt deliveries began

2011 The Nissan Leaf passed the Mitsubishi i MiEV as the world's all-time best selling all-electric car Taurus Electro G2 becomes the first two-seat electric aircraft to have achieved series production.

2012 June: Solar Impulse 1 achieves first intercontinental flight by a solar aircraft, flying from Madrid, Spain to Rabat, Morocco. Launch of the Tesla Model S

2014 March: 1% of all cars in use in Norway are plug-ins first production-model all-electric school bus was delivered to the Kings Canyon Unified School District in California's San Joaquin Valley

2015 3 July: Solar Impulse 2 lands in Hawaii on 3 July, setting new records for the world's longest solar-powered flight both by time (117 hours, 52 minutes) and distance (7,212 km; 4,481 mi). The flight's duration was also a record for longest solo flight, by time, for any aircraft. September: Cumulative global plug-in sales passed 1 million units.

2016 June 20-23: Solar Impulse 2 makes the first non-stop solar-powered transatlantic flight July: Solar Impulse 2 lands in Abu Dhabi, completing circumnavigation of the world November: Global all-electric car/van sales passed 1 million. December: Cumulative global plug-in sales passed 2 million units 5% of passenger cars on Norwegian roads are plug-ins

2017 Early: 1 millionth domestic new energy car sold in China July: Launch of the Tesla Model 3 November: Cumulative global plug-in sales passed 3 million units December: Annual global sales passed the 1 million unit mark 5% of all cars in use in Norway are all-electric. Annual global market share passed 1% for the first time

2018 First half: 1 millionth plug-in electric car sold in Europe September: 1 millionth plug-in electric car sold in the U.S. 2 millionth new energy vehicle sold in China (includes heavy-duty commercial vehicles) October: 10% of passenger cars on Norwegian roads are plug-ins November: 500,000th plug-in car sold in California December: Annual global sales passed the 2 million unit mark Tesla Model 3 becomes first plug-in to exceed 100,000 sales in a single year

2019 December: One out of two new passenger cars registered in Norway in 2019 was a plug-in electric car

2020s

2020 Early: The Tesla Model 3 surpassed the Nissan Leaf as the world's best selling plug-in electric car in history March: The Tesla Model 3 is the first electric car to sell more than 500,000 units since inception. Tesla, Inc. becomes the first auto manufacturer to produce 1 million electric cars April: 10% of all cars on the road in Norway are all-electric June: the Velis Electro variant of the two-seat Pipistrel Virus was the first electric aircraft to secure type certification, from the EASA December: Nissan Leaf global sales reached 500,000 units. Cumulative global plug-in car sales passed the 10 million unit milestone The Norwegian plug-in car segment achieved a record annual market share of 74.7% of new car sales. Over 15% of all cars on Norwegian roads are plug-in electric.

2021 September: Rivian R1T becomes the first plug-in electric production pickup truck.

2022 May: Cumulative global plug-in car sales passed the 20 million unit milestone

2023 January: EV cars surpass 10% in global market share May: Tesla Model Y becomes the world's best selling vehicle

2025 June: Kyle Clark, the founder and CEO of the Burlington, Vermont-based company BETA Technologies, piloted the Alia CX300 to the John F. Kennedy International Airport tarmack, concluding a 45-minute, 72-nautical mile-flight that took off from East Hampton, accomplishing the first-ever passenger flight of an electric-powered plane in North America.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Timeline of electric vehicles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Timeline of electric vehicles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Timeline of electric vehicles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Timeline of electric vehicles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Timeline of electric vehicles

In research: Timeline of electric vehicles appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Timeline of electric vehicles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Timeline of electric vehicles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electric vehicles, Technology timelines, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Timeline of electric vehicles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Timeline of electric vehicles in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Timeline of electric vehicles means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Timeline of electric vehicles out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Timeline of electric vehicles in simple terms?

The following is a timeline of electric vehicles, including cars, bicycles, aircraft and watercraft. 19th century 1875 World's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky. 1880s Immisch & Co, established by Moritz Immisch, e…

Why does Timeline of electric vehicles matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Timeline of electric vehicles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Timeline of electric vehicles.