World's First electric car

The world's first electric car... built by a British inventor in 1884

The world's first electric car may have been built by a Victorian inventor.

Newly unearthed photos show what appears to be an electric vehicle built in the year 1884.

To the modern eye the machine looks like a horseless carriage, but sitting aboard at the wheel is the 19th century inventor Thomas Parker. 

Could this be the world's first electric car? Thomas Parker (C) was a Victorian inventor who claimed to have invented the vehicle

Mr Parker electrified the London Underground and created overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite.

He claimed he had invented the electric car and he also had a hand in refining car batteries for petrol-powered models.  He died in December 1915.