There were a handful of electric car manufacturers at the turn of the last century but battery technology prevented them from being more practical than a gasoline powered car.

Detroit Electric was one of the larger manufacturers.

There were also a few hybrid cars that had a gas engine that generated electricity to drive an electric motor.

Owen Magnetic was one such vehicle. It is pretty fascinating to see how they accomplished this with teens and twenties technology.

Very early on, gasoline was sold at pharmacies and general stores before gas stations took hold.

Early batteries in glass cases could be rebuilt but they had very limited capacity compared to modern batteries or even batteries from the 80's.