Innovation - Electric cars

 Scottish inventor Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells. American Thomas Davenport is credited with building the first practical electric vehicle -- a small locomotive. French physicist Gaston Planté invents the rechargeable lead-acid storage battery. If electricity is 12 cents per kWh — the national average — it would cost $3.48 to go 100 miles. Another way to calculate cost is to use the number of kilowatt-hours it takes to recharge the EV's battery. If an EV requires 20 kWh to fully recharge and the rate is 12 cents per kWh, that's $2.40 to fill up the car . Battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, use electricity stored in a battery pack to power an electric motor and turn the wheels. When depleted, the batteries are recharged using grid electricity, either from a wall socket or a dedicated charging unit. ... The amount of pollution produced depends on how the electricity is made.