Before Tesla: Historical Photos That Prove Electric Cars Have Been Around Forever

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John Summers • Contributor
Oct 9, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

Long before Elon Musk was tweeting from the driver's seat of a Cybertruck, electric cars were already out there humming through the cobblestone streets of Europe and America - quietly, elegantly, and without the smell of gasoline. You wouldn't think it, but the real OGs of the EV world go all the way back to the 1880s.

Back then, electric cars weren't just prototypes. They were taxis in London, tricycles in Paris, and city cruisers for the well-to-do. There were no emissions, no engine noise, and best of all - no hand-cranking to get started. The wealthy elite loved them for short city drives, and at one point in the early 1900s, EVs were actually outselling gasoline cars in the U.S.

These photos capture that brief but fascinating golden age of early electric vehicles - from the world's first electric tricycle invented by Gustave Trouvé, to Camille Jenatzy's rocket-shaped speed machine, to the silent "Hummingbird" cabs of Victorian London. Some of these rides look more like moon rovers than cars, but each one paved the way (literally) for the electric revolution we're living through today.

Turns out EVs aren't the future - they're the past, too.

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  • 01

    Thomas Edison poses with his first electric car, the Edison Baker, and one of its batteries. 1895.

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  • 02

    Gustave Trouvé’s tricycle (1881), world’s first electric car.

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    via Rare Historical Photos
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    Men ride on an electric car designed by Siemens and Halske outside of Berlin, Germany. 1882

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    Thomas Edison and an electric car in 1913.

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    Columbia Electric’s (1896-99) “Victoria” electric cab on Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C., seen from Lafayette Park in 1905.

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    A Columbia electric car. 1899

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    Roger Wallace drives his electric car. 1899.

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    Camille Jenatzy drives his self-designed electric car near Paris, France. He was first person to exceed 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in a car. 1899.

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    via Rare Historical Photos
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    Electric cars of the New York Edison Company line up in Manhattan. 1906.

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    An electric street sweeper cleans the roadway in Berlin, Germany. 1907.

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    German electric car, 1904, with the chauffeur on top.

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    Electric vehicles recharge at a power substation. 1909.

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  • 13

    An advertisement for an electric car. 1910.

    Equipages of Colonial Dames Post Chaise of the Wife of Pierre Van Cortland WE HAVE BEEN COACH BUILDERS Rauch & Lang Electrics WORM DRIVE Series III Number III OVER SIXTY YEARS Electric Car Supremacy The Electric offers in its diversified uses, a car of exceptional merit-as fhe family car it stands supreme. Every member of your family can drive it no chauffeur needed. It offers all of the best qualities of a gasoline car without any disagreeable features- danger from gasoline-offensive odors of o
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  • 14

    A Mercury Arc Rectifier Charging Set powers up an electric car in a garage in Cleveland, Ohio. 1910.

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    A woman uses a hand-cranked battery charger to charge her electric Columbia Mark 68 Victoria automobile. The Pope Manufacturing Company made the car in 1906 and the charger in 1912.

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    A Detroit Electric car drives on a mountain road between Seattle and Mount Rainier, Washington. 1920.

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