Long before the hum of a modern electric car, inventors were tinkering with the idea of harnessing electricity for motion. The concept began to take shape shortly after the invention of the electric motor in the early 1800s. In the 1830s, a Scottish inventor named Robert Anderson is credited with creating the first crude electric carriage. It was a basic vehicle powered by non-rechargeable primary cells, which were essentially early batteries that couldn't be juiced up again.