Thomas Edison’s Electric Car Battery

“Stored electricity finds its greatest usefulness in propelling cars and road vehicles, and it has been for this application, primarily, that the Edison storage ­battery has been developed.” -- Scientific American, Jan. 1911

Most people will remember Thomas Edison as the inventor of the light bulb - although he didn't actually invent the first light bulb, he did perfect the design making it longer lasting and more efficient. However, he also worked hard for ten years to design a better battery for electric cars. He even collaborated with Henry Ford on an electric car project. By 1910 he was successfully producing the new battery at his factory in New Jersey, but by then it was too late for use in the automobile - the Model T came out in 1909. It wasn't until 2010, 100 years later, that advances in battery technology made possible a new mass-produced electric car, the Nissan LEAF, finally fulfilling Edison's vision of battery-powered personal transportation

Further reading:
http://www.batteryfacts.co.uk/BatteryHistory/Edison.html
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/06/henry-ford-thomas-edison-ev/

Great information...at one of the first LEAF presentations I attended the opening slide was an advertisement from around 1910 offering a vehicle with "your choice" of engine -- Electric, Gasoline, or Steam.

These batteries last for almost a 100 years or more. A chinese company was making them and selling them to to US buyers with a warranty to be used as PV back up.