A new study from Lund University in Sweden suggests that if electricity grids had spread just 15 or 20 years earlier, a majority of US car producers would have likely opted for electric cars instead of those powered by internal combustion engines (ICE).
A broad political commitment to a universal electricity grid was introduced in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, but came decades too late, the researchers said.
“It is a common notion that electric cars were technically inferior and more expensive. We find that this is not entirely true. Electric cars were more expensive, but not relative to their performance. In addition, the average range was surprisingly good because early cars were light and relatively small,” said associate professor Josef Taalbi.
The team used a database of more than 36,000 American passenger car models to conduct the research.
“According to our estimates, electric cars were cheaper to drive in the 1920s thanks to cheap...