Brought about by so many unreliable gasoline-powered cars broken down or overheating at the side of the road.
Facts are facts: Electric cars once dominated the car market in the United States and they will again:
http://joltthebook.org/
Fasten your seatbelts, America. The electric vehicle is about to take us on one heck of a ride. So states James Billmaier in his groundbreaking book on the impending electric vehicle (EV) revolution. He argues that in addition to being a blast to drive, EVs will come to dominate the personal auto market in the coming years because they are cheaper to run and cheaper to maintain. Adopting EVs will also allow America to put the brakes on sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year to OPEC, helping us achieve energy independence within a decade.
But thats only part of the story. Billmaier outlines how EVs will propel the coming electriconomy, a consumer-driven economic boom that will be ignited as society is transformed from an oil-based economy to one powered by electricity. The electriconomy will dwarf all previous technology revolutionsit will be bigger than the computer and Internet markets combinedand will catapult the economy of whichever nation masters it.
Its a race we need to win for reasons of national and economic security, Billmaier says, but we need to move fast. China is determined to own the EV space itself, an outcome that would be as detrimental to U.S. national security as our current dependence on foreign oil is today. In these pages, he describes what we need to do to win the EV racewhat America must do to take charge!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_cars#1890s_to_1900s:_Early_history
1890s to 1900s: Early history
Before the pre-eminence of internal combustion engines, electric automobiles held many speed and distance records. Among the most notable of these records was the breaking of the 100 km/h (62 mph) speed barrier, by Camille Jenatzy on April 29, 1899 in his 'rocket-shaped' vehicle Jamais Contente, which reached a top speed of 105.88 km/h (65.79 mph). Before the 1920s, electric automobiles were competing with petroleum-fueled cars for urban use of a quality service car.[20]