Transport & space · 1899

La Jamais Contente

A battery-electric car becomes the first road vehicle to exceed 100 km/h.

Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy reached 105.88 km/h in his torpedo-shaped electric car near Paris in 1899. Around 1900 electric cars were common in US cities. Cheap gasoline and the electric starter pushed them aside until batteries improved a century later.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 4

Automobile 1886
Lead-acid battery 1859
Electric motor 1834
Voltaic battery 1800

What it led to 1

GM EV1 1996

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Selected milestones in human travel speed Latest: 39.9k km/h (1969) Source: Wikipedia: Horse gait (gallop 40-48 km/h); Wikipedia: List of speed records in rail transport

Electric share of new car sales Latest: Battery electric: 16.5 % of new cars (2025) Source: Our World in Data