General Motors made what is arguably the first modern electric car in 1966, the Electrovair. It was a concept car, based on the rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair.
GM engineers began experimenting with electric motors in 1963. While there had been American electric cars as far back as the 1880s and into the 1920s, they used DC motors, which limited their capabilities. GM engineers designed a motor that used AC current, allowing better performance, and incorporated newly available solid-state components.
More:
“The Story of the 1966 Chevrolet Electrovair, the Electric Corvair You Never Knew Existed,” Ciprian Florea, Autoevolution
“The first modern EV was … a Corvair?” Larry Mihalko, SAE Automotive Engineering
Note: electric delivery trucks were made by the General Vehicle Company (a GE subsidiary) and GM’s truck division in the years before WWI, but information on them isn’t readily available.
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