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electric vehicle
Sign in to saveAlso known as EV, electrically-powered vehicle
vehicle propelled by one or more electric motors
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- mode of transport
- Subclass of
- motor vehicle
- Image
- Eviation Alice, Paris Air Show 2019, Le Bourget (SIAE8856).jpg
Show 8 more facts
- replaces
- natural gas vehicle
- powered by
- electric motor
- Commons category
- Electrically-powered vehicles
- topic's main category
- Category:Electric vehicles
- history of topic
- history of the electric vehicle
- source of energy
- electric current
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- WikiProject Climate change
- short name
- EV
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle propelled mostly by electric power. EVs encompass road (cars, buses, trucks and personal transporters), rail (trains, trams and monorails), boats and submersibles, aircraft (fixed-wing and multirotors) and spacecraft.
EVs originated in the late 19th century. Electricity was among the preferred methods for powering early motor vehicles because it was quieter, provided comfort, and ease of operation. However, its limited range hindered mass adoption throughout the 20th century. Internal combustion engines were the dominant propulsion mechanisms for cars and trucks for about 100 years, although electricity-powered locomotion became commonplace in other vehicle types, such as overhead line-powered mass transit vehicles, as well as special purpose vehicles such as mobility scooters.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “electric vehicle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.