The Electric Vehicle

Those interested in the history of automotive technology should read-and will enjoy-this book. Choice An impressive work that couples theoretical sophistication with extensive use of American, Dutch, English, French, and German sources… Surely deserves a place on the bookshelf of automotive historians and anyone interested in why we get the technologies that we do. – Rudi Volti Technology and Culture Mom has mined the archives of several countries, uncovering manuscript and published sources in four languages, to produce a model comparative history. His main focus is the United States and Germany, but he follows electric vehicles to Britain, France, and the Netherlands, with side trips to other European countries. The result is a stunning compilation of examples and figures, ranging from Chicago to Berlin and from race cars to milk trucks. – Zachary M. Schrag Enterprise and Society Mom provides a clear argument that demands consideration from historians of technology as well as policymakers. Michigan Historical Review A stunning triumph of creative and sophisticated scholarship… Mom’s prescription-that technological change be studied holistically-is a potent antidote to the poisonous extremes of technological, economic, and sociocultural determinism. – Michael Brian Schiffer Business History Review An impressive empirical study. – Staffan Hulten EH.Net The research is exhaustive… He shows how competition between the electric and the gasoline car involved much more than the vehicles themselves, and he helps us understand the electric vehicle as the center of an alternative system. This has future implications… The electric car’s ‘failure’ was not technical but cultural. – David E. Nye American Historical Review This book is more than just a single case study where present-day technology was around 100 years ago. This book reveals how History is full of possibilities. The challenge is not to learn the lessen too late. – Sandro Mendonca Up An interesting study of road based transportation in the early years, with a good deal of insight into the electric car market through most of the century. – David K. Nergaard IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Gijs Mom is an associate professor in the history of technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology.