There is much to recommend electric vehicles (EVs) today as we struggle with rising fuel prices, warnings that we have entered a "Post-Peak Oil World," and as concern over the environmental and societal impact of vehicle emissions grows. EVs provide clean, quiet operation, mechanical simplicity, fine driving control, excellent conversion efficiency, and the ability to generate torque rapidly and convert kinetic motion back into electricity using regenerative braking.
EVs were among the first passenger vehicles, and held many early land speed and distance records but were eventually surpassed by vehicles with internal combustion engines, which offered greater driving range and what was then a cheap and plentiful source of energy: petroleum-based fuel.
Since then, interest in EVs has grown and waned - usually in response to issues like the oil crisis of the 1970s, the California zero-emissions laws of the 1990s, and the current decade's high fuel prices.Versus conventionally powered vehicles, they had poor handling and acceleration, low top speeds, and short driving ranges.