title: Bechtel

text: In 1991, Bechtel, in a joint venture with Parsons Brinckerhoff, broke ground on Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project or "Big Dig," a project the company had been in charge of since 1986. The Big Dig was, at the time, the largest and most complex urban transportation project ever undertaken in the US. The 20-year project was critiqued for rising costs and increasing scope of work, as the Big Dig became more complex than was originally estimated. Criticism of the project increased in 2005 when a leak sprang in one of the new tunnels. In the summer of 2006, a faulty tunnel ceiling panel collapsed, killing a motorist. Litigation ensued, and in January 2008, Bechtel settled with federal and state officials for $352 million with other contractors involved paying smaller amounts.


title: Bechtel

text: As a result of the Gulf war, Bechtel accepted the task of extinguishing oil well fires in Kuwait in 1991. This fire-suppression project was part of the effort to rebuild the infrastructure of Kuwait.


title: Bechtel

text: In 1994, Bechtel began work on the US$20 billion Hong Kong Airport Core Programme, which was the largest civil engineering project at the time and included a new airport and nine other infrastructure projects. Bechtel's other major projects during the 1990s included the Athens Metro system, the Atlantic LNG in Trinidad, the Croatian Motorway, the Jubilee Line Extension for the London Underground, Quezon Power Plant in the Philippines, and a semiconductor plant in China. Bechtel also managed design and construction of facilities for Olympic games: the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, and the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan in 1998. In the early 2000s, the company provided planning and management services for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In 2001, Bechtel was part of a consortium to project manage the US$4.3 billion construction of the CSPC Nanhai Petrochemicals Complex in China.


title: Bechtel

text: Several projects in the 2000s attracted controversy. In 2000, after a protest against water prices being raised by a utility partially owned by Bechtel in Bolivia, the company pulled out of the country and later filed suit against Bolivia for $25 million in losses. The claim was settled in 2006 for $0.30.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2001, Bechtel began work on the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site in Washington state. The project is a highly complex plant for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste that has employed new technologies and construction techniques that are the first of their kind. As of 2013, it is considered the most complex project in the US. Management of the project has been the subject of controversy including the Department of Energy's Inspector General reports and Government Accountability Office studies regarding rising costs, nuclear safety and quality, and whistleblower allegations. For example, in 2013 the DOE Inspector General concluded that "Bechtel determined that there was a systemic problem and a breakdown in controls over the review of design changes", but that the company had taken steps to correct the problems.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2003, Bechtel won a $680 million contract to begin rebuilding infrastructure in Iraq for U.S. Agency for International Development. The contract led to the company being accused of both non-competitive bidding and war profiteering. Bechtel won a competitively-bid second contract in January 2004, and completed 97 of 99 task orders of the contract, returning the two remaining projects due to the escalating security concerns in the country.


title: Bechtel

text: Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bechtel was one of four companies hired by FEMA to build temporary housing. Bechtel delivered over 35,000 trailers in under a year for displaced residents in Mississippi, though the company was criticized by officials and in the media for the cost and quality of work.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2007, Bechtel began work on the Romanian A3 motorway (Autostrada Transilvania) and Albanian motorways. Bechtel and the Romanian National Roads Authority jointly agreed on a settlement to end the contract for works on the Autostrada Transilvania in 2013. The Albanian Motorway was opened to traffic in 2010 on schedule.


title: Bechtel

text: Other major projects at the end of the 2000s included the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, Jamnagar Refinery expansion in India, Equatorial GuineaLNG, and Oak Creek Power Plant in Wisconsin.


title: Bechtel

text: After years of unreliable water supply and 40% water loss in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, the World Bank pressured Bolivia to put SEMAPA (the Cochabamba water utility) up for auction without funding. Bechtel and others formed a consortium named "Aguas del Tunari" (Water of Tunari - a local regional term) to file a bid to the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000. Bechtel was a 27% partner and Abengoa S.A. of Spain was a 25% partner. This bid was in response to the increasing pressure from the World Bank, which had funded and extended water supply projects for the country of Bolivia, to privatize the water utility of Cochabamba. With the strings attached in 1995, and the World Bank participating in draft bids in 1997, the Aguas del Tunari consortium were the only bidders for the auction. The bid was accepted, under pressure of the World Bank and the conditions of their loans to Bolivia. The terms were ratified in the often-cited Law 2029 by the legislative body of Bolivia, however largely it had previously been accepted and influenced by local governments. Under the terms, Bechtel and the consortium immediately raised water pricing 35% and after the first month they had raised the price for water to the residents by almost 60% and in other parts much higher. The Bechtel consortium contract claimed harvesting of rainwater violated its contract essentially monopolizing the supply of water to millions of people. Water became one fifth of the average person's expenses and protests erupted. Protests were met with a cold shoulder response by Bechtel expressing they would simply cut-off water to those who did not pay. Further protests were enhanced when agricultural sectors realized the bylaws allowed Bechtel and the consortium rights to rain water as well, which was assumed to mean they could no longer collect rain water.


title: Bechtel

text: Violence between protesters and police resulted in the burning of government buildings and hundreds of injured within the first days of the conflict. The local governments of Manfred Reyes Villa (mayor) and Jose Pepe Orias (prefect or governor) quickly fled the arguments and disappeared and resigned (respectively), leaving the executive government of General Hugo Banzer Suarez to clean-up the mess. The contract was ultimately abandoned, for which Bechtel in February 2021 demanded settlement. The aftermath of the violence was destruction of public property in downtown Cochabamba paid for by taxpayers, the death of one civilian, restitution by the government, and hundreds of injured police, military personnel, and protestors. A movie titled "Even the Rain" with actor Gael García Bernal depicts a historical fiction story set in this time. The conflict became known as the Cochabamba Water War.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel's major operational locations are in Brisbane, Calgary, Dubai, Houston, London, New Delhi, Reston, Virginia, San Francisco, Santiago, Shanghai, Nairobi, Taipei, and Washington, D.C.


title: Bechtel

text: The company is headquartered in Reston, which also houses the company's global operational headquarters, as well as the headquarters of the Nuclear, Security & Environmental global business unit and the Americas offices of the Infrastructure global business unit. The company's Oil, Gas & Chemicals unit is based in the Houston office. The Washington office is home to the government affairs team, and maintains a Political Action Committee.


title: Bechtel

text: Outside of North America, the Infrastructure unit's headquarters is located at the company's London office. The Mining & Metals unit is based out of Santiago, Chile, and Brisbane. In 2013, the company established its global center of engineering excellence in Dubai focusing on rail and marine projects. It established innovation centers in Houston and London in 2015 and Santiago in 2018 to test new technology.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel works on global megaprojects through its four business units. The company frequently manages work from design through construction phases. Its corporate values include safety, quality, and ethics.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel was the presenting sponsor of "Dream Big: Engineering Our World," a 42-minute IMAX documentary produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films in partnership with American Society of Civil Engineers. The documentary seeks to inspire young people to pursue engineering careers.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel opened its welding and applied technology center in 2017 in the Houston Energy Corridor to train welding and construction workers. The center also provides virtual training and augmented reality to train workers.


title: Bechtel

text: Its Houston offices were in the Houston Galleria area; in 2022 the company announced it would move those offices to Westchase, Houston effective late 2023.


title: Bechtel

text: The Infrastructure unit handles transportation, power, and hydroelectric facilities. Transportation projects include highways, bridges, rail, and aviation facilities. Bechtel has built more than of roadway, 390 power plants, 50 hydroelectric plants, as well as 20 towns and cities globally. It has worked on 300 subway and rail projects, 80 port and harbor projects, and 96 major airport projects.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel's Infrastructure unit is leading a consortium in the engineering, procurement and construction of lines One and Two of the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia metro, which began construction in April 2014. In July 2014, Bechtel was selected to build a new 37-mile motorway linking Kosovo's capital, Pristina, to Macedonia.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel is also participating in the building of London's Crossrail, a $24 billion project that will connect commuter towns east and west of London and is intended to serve an estimated 200 million people a year upon completion. As of June 2015, the project is 65% complete.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2016, Bechtel began construction on the first phase of the Edmonton Valley Line Light Rail Transit project in Alberta, Canada, the first public–private partnership (P3) business group. The company is also involved in several ongoing projects as of 2016, including building national infrastructure in Gabon and supporting the continuous development of Jubail industrial city in Saudi Arabia. Bechtel has worked at Jubail for more than 40 years, and was granted a five-year extension on both projects June 2016.


title: Bechtel

text: In February 2017, Bechtel was chosen to support setting up and operating Saudi Arabia's National Project Management Office. In May 2017, Bechtel was appointed the delivery management partner for the tunnels and stations excavation package of Stage 2 of the Sydney Metro project. Considered Australia's largest public infrastructure project, the work includes new twin rail tunnels under Sydney Harbour. Bechtel won the contract in August 2017 to design and build a 473-kilometer highway with 19 interchanges linking Nairobi, Kenya's capital, to Mombasa, Kenya's main port. The first section is targeted to open in October 2019 and the entire length of the highway is scheduled to be complete in 2024.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2018, Bechtel's work on the Panda Power Funds' 1.1 GW natural gas Hummel Station Power Plant in Pennsylvania was completed. Bechtel is also working on a project for Advanced Power, the Cricket Valley Energy Center in New York. Bechtel is also building the Keeyask Generating Station, a hydroelectric power plant for Manitoba Hydro in Manitoba, Canada. The Infrastructure unit had also worked on projects for Google Fiber in several markets in the Southeastern U.S.


title: Bechtel

text: Among completed projects, Bechtel finished a four-lane motorway in Kosovo a year ahead of schedule in November 2013. The unit completed the 143 MW Catalina Solar photovoltaic generating facility and the construction of the 250 MW California Valley Solar Ranch in 2013. Bechtel also completed the Hanna Region Transmission Development, a power transmission project in Canada, which included 1,200 new transmission towers and of transmission lines in 2013. Bechtel completed Phase I of an extension of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail in Northern Virginia and completed the Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, in 2014. Bechtel also completed the world's largest solar thermal project, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, which began producing power in February 2014.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2015, Bechtel began work as project manager of the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension for the Toronto Transit Commission. The project was completed in 2017. Bechtel completed construction of the Stonewall Energy Facility in May 2017. The 778 megawatt natural gas-fired power plant supplies electricity to 778,000 homes in northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area. Bechtel's work on the Carroll County Energy Facility in Ohio for Advanced Power was also completed in 2017. In 2018, the unit completed a new air passenger terminal in Muscat, Oman. n May 2022, Bechtel was hired to update the Vision 2041 plan for Shannon Foynes Port in Ireland.


title: Bechtel

text: The Mining & Metals (M&M) unit works on projects related to the mining and production of materials such as aluminum, coal, copper, iron ore, alumina and other metals and minerals. The unit operates on six continents and has completed hundreds of major mining projects as well as more than 1,000 mining studies. It has also finished 42 major copper projects, 30 aluminum smelters, 15 major coal projects, and eight alumina refinery projects.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2013, the unit completed construction of Saudi Arabia's first aluminum smelter in Ras Al-Khair, the Daunia coal mine in Queensland, Australia, and the expansion of the Kooragang Coal Terminal in Port Waratah in Australia, increasing capacity to 145 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa).


title: Bechtel

text: In 2014, M&M completed the Caval Ridge coal mine in Queensland, and began operations at Escondida's OLAP copper cathode project, which consisted of a new dynamic leaching pad and a mineral handling system.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2015, the unit completed the Las Bambas copper concentrator in Peru for MMG, the Kitimat aluminum smelter in Canada for Rio Tinto Group., and the Escondida Organic Growth Project 1 (OGP1), the largest single-line copper concentrator ever built. M&M also completed a third berth for the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) at Hay Point Coal Terminal in Queensland, Australia, which increased export capacity from the existing 44 Mtpa to 55 Mtpa.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel began building the Al Taweelah alumina refinery (formerly Shaheen) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) in 2015.


title: Bechtel

text: In April 2016, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) announced that Bechtel had been appointed engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) contractor for the company's Line 6 Expansion Project. The initiative will make Alba the world's largest single-site aluminum smelter upon completion, boosting production to 1.5 Mtpa. That same month, Rio Tinto announced that Kitimat had reached full production levels of 420,000 tonnes per annum, while Las Bambas achieved commercial production in July 2016. As of 2016, Bechtel is advancing the Amrun bauxite initiative for Rio Tinto in Australia, which announced project approval in November 2015.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel completed the engineering, procurement, and construction of a water system and desalination plant for the Escondida copper mine in Chile in 2018. The Bechtel-Techint joint venture team built a dual 112-mile-long pipeline to carry desalinated water from the Pacific Coast across the Atacama Desert to the Escondida copper mine approximately 10,000 feet above sea level in the Andes.


title: Bechtel

text: The Energy unit designs and builds liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil, pipeline, petrochemicals, natural gas, and water treatment facilities. Since the company's founding, it has built approximately of pipeline systems, more than 50 major oil and gas field developments, and completed over 380 major chemical and petrochemical projects. The unit also constructs and tests tanks for LNG storage. Bechtel has built a third of the world's LNG liquefaction capacity.


title: Bechtel

text: Between 2011 and 2016, the unit built three LNG plants on Curtis Island in Queensland, Australia. It completed the first of six trains in December 2014. The complex was named a 2016 Global Best Project by "Engineering News-Record" in the category of "Power/Industrial" and a Construction Project of the Year by S&P Global Platts. The unit also built the Wheatstone project, a two-train LNG plant that is one of Australia's largest energy resource efforts. Following completion of Train 1 in late 2017, Train 2 of the facility moved into production mid-2018.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel has built five LNG production trains for Cheniere Energy Partners LP as the Sabine Pass liquefaction project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The initial cargo from the first completed train was delivered in 2016. In November, 2018, the unit has completed the first of three LNG trains on the Corpus Christi Liquefaction project in Texas. The Corpus Christi, project includes three LNG trains, three LNG storage tanks, and two berths. In 2016, Bechtel completed roof raises on two tanks at a liquefaction plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, for Cheniere.


title: Bechtel

text: In May 2013, the unit was awarded a contract for the front-end engineering design of the Pacific NorthWest LNG in Vancouver, BC. In March 2014, the unit was awarded a contract to construct facilities in Georgia for the Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan. In August 2015, Bechtel was contracted by Delfin LNG, to provide front-end engineering and design for a planned floating LNG vessel at Port Delfin off the coastline of Louisiana, which would be the first in the U.S. Also in 2015, the unit was awarded a contract to manage the engineering, procurement, and construction of 12 new natural-gas pipelines in Thailand.


title: Bechtel

text: The company was part of a consortium selected by PTT GC America in 2015 to provide front-end engineering and design for a new petrochemical complex in Belmont County, Ohio. It is also the lead contractor for a Shell petrochemical plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel's technology was licensed for facility upgrades at the Rijeka Refinery in Croatia in February 2014. In 2016, the unit was contracted by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to design an upgrade to the coker unit at the Assiut refinery in Egypt using its ThruPlus technology. Also in 2016, it was awarded a contract to upgrade a refinery in Beaumont, Texas, for ExxonMobil, using ExxonMobil's proprietary SCANfining technology.


title: Bechtel

text: In late 2017, the unit was selected to design and build Tellurian's Driftwood LNG project, a proposed liquefied gas facility in Louisiana. In January 2018, the unit was awarded a front-end engineering design contract for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's planned offshore ultra-sour gas mega project located in the north western area of Abu Dhabi.


title: Bechtel

text: In June 2019, Kallanish Energy reported that Bechtel had been hired by Thailand's PTT Global Chemical America and South Korea-based partner Daelim to build a $6 billion ethane cracker on the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio.


title: Bechtel

text: The Nuclear, Security & Environmental unit handles the company's government work and commercial nuclear businesses. The unit supports U.S. and international governmental organizations including the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy. Since the 1950s, Bechtel has designed, serviced, or delivered 80 percent of all nuclear plants in the U.S.


title: Bechtel

text: As of 2019, Bechtel leads or is a member of a consortium that manage a national laboratory and a number of national security-related facilities in the U.S., including: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the combined operations of the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Pantex Plant.


title: Bechtel

text: Bechtel has been contracted to manage the United States Navy's nuclear propulsion research facilities since 2011. In June 2013 the unit completed design and construction on a U.S. Missile Defense Agency project at Fort Greely, Alaska, which included three missile fields and forty silos. In 2014 the U.K. Ministry of Defence selected Bechtel to support the Royal Navy and Air Force on procurement and managed support services. Additionally, in 2016, Bechtel began providing testing and operations for the Arnold Engineering Development Complex at the Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee.


title: Bechtel

text: Other government work includes the construction of the facilities to treat the liquid radioactive waste stored underground at the Department of Energy's Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington. Bechtel and AECOM agreed in 2016 to pay $125 million to settle claims by the U.S. Department of Justice that the companies used subpar work while building a nuclear waste treatment facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, in addition to allegedly using public funds for lobbying. The companies did not admit wrongdoing; they said they settled to avoid long, costly litigation. In late 2017, Bechtel completed the assembly of two nuclear waste melters, each at 300 tons. The melters are the largest of their kind ever built in the United States.


title: Bechtel

text: The unit also manages U.S. Department of Defense contracts to dismantle and dispose of stored chemical weapons, including decades-old mustard and nerve gas from World War II. By 2019, the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado had destroyed nearly 100,000 munitions. Bechtel completed the construction of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in 2015. Since May 2012, Bechtel has been part of a consortium completing the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, a structure that will safely confine the damaged Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Number 4. Bechtel continues to oversee the operation. In November 2016, the team slid a massive containment arch to cover the damaged nuclear reactor and contain radioactive material.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2016, Bechtel completed work on Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar 2 nuclear reactor. In May 2016, a joint venture including Bechtel won a contract to conduct front-end engineering and design for the eventual construction of Wylfa Newydd, a nuclear power station in Wales for Horizon Nuclear Power.


title: Bechtel

text: In August 2017, Bechtel took over as the lead contractor to complete construction at Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle, estimated in 2022 at $30 billion. Bechtel was awarded the contract and took over day-to-day construction of Plant Vogtle's Units 3 and 4 after Westinghouse Electric, the designer and principal contractor for the two new reactors, filed for bankruptcy.


title: Bechtel

text: As of 2018, Bechtel is building the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The $6.5 billion project is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration program to replace aging, Cold War-era facilities that service, refresh, and replace the uranium stages of nuclear warheads.


title: Bechtel

text: Brendan Bechtel is chairman and CEO and is the fifth generation of the Bechtel family to lead the company. Jack Futcher is president and chief operating officer. Keith Hennessey is chief financial officer.


title: Bechtel

text: Several high-ranking Bechtel executives at times held important positions in the United States government. Notably, Reagan's cabinet had two former Bechtel executives: Caspar Weinberger and George Shultz, serving as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State respectively.


title: Bechtel

text: In 2017, Bechtel ranked eighth on "Forbes'" list of America's Largest Private Companies by revenue, and 7th on "Fortune's" list of the 25 Most Important Private Companies. The company has been named the top U.S. Contractor by revenue by "Engineering News-Record" for 20 years in a row and ranked 12th on the publication's Top 250 International Contractors list by revenue for 2018.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The stab-in-the-back myth (, , ) was an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front—especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labor unrest, and other republican politicians who had overthrown the House of Hohenzollern in the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Advocates of the myth denounced the German government leaders who had signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918 as the "November criminals" ().


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, they made the conspiracy theory an integral part of their official history of the 1920s, portraying the Weimar Republic as the work of the "November criminals" who had "stabbed the nation in the back" in order to seize power. Nazi propaganda depicted Weimar Germany as "a morass of corruption, degeneracy, national humiliation, ruthless persecution of the honest 'national opposition'—fourteen years of rule by Jews, Marxists, and 'cultural Bolsheviks', who had at last been swept away by the National Socialist movement under Hitler and the victory of the 'national revolution' of 1933".


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Historians inside and outside of Germany unanimously reject the myth, pointing out that the Imperial German Army was out of reserves, was being overwhelmed by the entrance of the United States into the war, and had already lost the war militarily by late 1918.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: In the later part of World War I, Germany was essentially transformed into a military dictatorship, with the Supreme High Command () and General Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as commander-in-chief advising Emperor Wilhelm II – although Hindenburg was largely a figurehead, with his Chief-of-Staff, First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff, effectively in control of the state and the army. Following the passage of the Reichstag Peace Resolution, the Army pressured the Emperor to remove Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg and replace him with weak and relatively unknown figures (Georg Michaelis and Georg von Hertling) who were "de facto" puppets of Ludendorff.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The Allies had been amply resupplied by the United States, which also had fresh armies ready for combat, but the United Kingdom and France were too war-weary to contemplate an invasion of Germany with its unknown consequences. On the Western Front, although the Hindenburg Line had been penetrated and German forces were in retreat, the Allied army had not reached the western German frontier, and on the Eastern Front, Germany had already won the war against Russia, concluded with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In the West, Germany had successes with the Spring Offensive of 1918 but the attack had run out of momentum, the Allies had regrouped and in the Hundred Days Offensive retaken lost ground with no sign of stopping. Contributing to the "Dolchstoßlegende", the overall failure of the German offensive was blamed on strikes in the arms industry at a critical moment, leaving soldiers without an adequate supply of materiel. The strikes were seen as having been instigated by treasonous elements, with the Jews taking most of the blame.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The weakness of Germany's strategic position was exacerbated by the rapid collapse of the other Central Powers in late 1918, following Allied victories on the Macedonian and Italian fronts. Bulgaria was the first to sign an armistice on 29 September 1918, at Salonica. On 30 October the Ottoman Empire capitulated at Mudros. On 3 November Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to ask for an armistice. The terms, arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian commander and accepted. The Armistice with Austria-Hungary was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on 3 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate treaties following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: After the last German offensive on the Western Front failed in 1918, Hindenburg and Ludendorff admitted that the war effort was doomed, and they pressed Kaiser Wilhelm II for an armistice to be negotiated, and for a rapid change to a civilian government in Germany. They began to take steps to deflect the blame for losing the war from themselves and the German Army to others. Ludendorff said to his staff on 1 October:


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: I have asked His Excellency to now bring those circles to power which we have to thank for coming so far. We will therefore now bring those gentlemen into the ministries. They can now make the peace which has to be made. They can eat the broth which they have prepared for us!


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: In this way, Ludendorff was setting up the republican politicians – many of them Socialists – who would be brought into the government, and would become the parties that negotiated the Armistice with the Allies, as the scapegoats to take the blame for losing the war, instead of himself and Hindenburg. Normally, during wartime an armistice is negotiated between the military commanders of the hostile forces, but Hindenburg and Ludendorff had instead handed this task to the new civilian government. The attitude of the military was "[T]he parties of the left have to take on the odium of this peace. The storm of anger will then turn against them," after which the military could step in again to ensure that things would once again be run "in the old way".


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: On 5 October, the German Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, contacted American President Woodrow Wilson, indicating that Germany was willing to accept his Fourteen Points as a basis for discussions. Wilson's response insisted that Germany institute parliamentary democracy, give up the territory it had gained to that point in the war, and significantly disarm, including giving up the German High Seas Fleet. On 26 October, Ludendorff was dismissed from his post by the Emperor and replaced by Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener, who started to prepare the withdrawal and demobilisation of the army.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: On 11 November 1918, the representatives of the newly formed Weimar Republic – created after the Revolution of 1918–1919 forced the abdication of the Kaiser – signed the armistice that ended hostilities. The military commanders had arranged it so that they would not be blamed for suing for peace, but the republican politicians associated with the armistice would: the signature on the armistice document was of Matthias Erzberger, who was later murdered for his alleged treason.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Given that the heavily censored German press had carried nothing but news of victories throughout the war, and that Germany itself was unoccupied while occupying a great deal of foreign territory, it was no wonder that the German public was mystified by the request for an armistice, especially as they did not know that their military leaders had asked for it, nor did they know that the German Army had been in full retreat after their last offensive had failed.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Thus the conditions were set for the "stab-in-the-back myth", in which Hindenburg and Ludendorff were held to be blameless, the German Army was seen as undefeated on the battlefield, and the republican politicians – especially the Socialists – were accused of betraying Germany. Further blame was laid at their feet after they signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which led to territorial losses and serious financial pain for the shaky new republic, including a crippling schedule of reparation payments.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Conservatives, nationalists and ex-military leaders began to speak critically about the peace and Weimar politicians, socialists, communists and German Jews. Even Catholics were viewed with suspicion by some due to supposed fealty to the Pope and their presumed lack of national loyalty and patriotism. It was claimed that these groups had not sufficiently supported the war and had played a role in selling out Germany to its enemies. These "November Criminals", or those who seemed to benefit from the newly formed Weimar Republic, were seen to have "stabbed them in the back" on the home front, by either criticizing German nationalism, instigating unrest and mounting strikes in the critical military industries or, by profiteering. These actions were believed to have deprived Germany of almost certain victory at the eleventh hour.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: According to historian Richard Steigmann-Gall, the stab-in-the-back concept can be traced back to a sermon preached on 3 February 1918, by Protestant Court Chaplain Bruno Doehring, nine months before the war had even ended. German scholar Boris Barth, in contrast to Steigmann-Gall, implies that Doehring did not actually use the term, but spoke only of 'betrayal'. Barth traces the first documented use to a centrist political meeting in the Munich Löwenbräu-Keller on November 2,  1918, in which , a member of the Progressive People's Party in the "Reichstag", used the term to exhort his listeners to keep fighting:


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: As long as the front holds, we damned well have the duty to hold out in the homeland. We would have to be ashamed of ourselves in front of our children and grandchildren if we attacked the battle front from the rear and gave it a dagger-stab. ("wenn wir der Front in den Rücken fielen und ihr den Dolchstoß versetzten.)"


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: However, the widespread dissemination and acceptance of the "stab-in-the-back" myth came about through its use by Germany's highest military echelon. In Spring 1919, Max Bauer – an Army colonel who had been the primary advisor to Ludendorff on politics and economics – published "Could We Have Avoided, Won, or Broken Off the War?", in which he wrote that "[The war] was lost only and exclusively through the failure of the homeland." The birth of the specific term "stab-in-the-back" itself can possibly be dated to the autumn of 1919, when Ludendorff was dining with the head of the British Military Mission in Berlin, British general Sir Neill Malcolm. Malcolm asked Ludendorff why he thought Germany lost the war. Ludendorff replied with his list of excuses, including that the home front failed the army.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Malcolm asked him: "Do you mean, General, that you were stabbed in the back?" Ludendorff's eyes lit up and he leapt upon the phrase like a dog on a bone. "Stabbed in the back?" he repeated. "Yes, that's it, exactly, we were stabbed in the back". And thus was born a legend which has never entirely perished.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The phrase was to Ludendorff's liking, and he let it be known among the general staff that this was the "official" version, which led to it being spread throughout German society. It was picked up by right-wing political factions, and was even used by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the memoirs he wrote in the 1920s. Right-wing groups used it as a form of attack against the early Weimar Republic government, led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had come to power with the abdication of the Kaiser. However, even the SPD had a part in furthering the myth when "Reichspräsident" Friedrich Ebert, the party leader, told troops returning to Berlin on 10 November 1918 that "No enemy has vanquished you," ("kein Feind hat euch überwunden!") and "they returned undefeated from the battlefield" ("sie sind vom Schlachtfeld unbesiegt zurückgekehrt"). The latter quote was shortened to "im Felde unbesiegt" ("undefeated on the battlefield") as a semi-official slogan of the "Reichswehr". Ebert had meant these sayings as a tribute to the German soldier, but it only contributed to the prevailing feeling.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Further "proof" of the myth's validity was found in British General Frederick Barton Maurice's book "The Last Four Months", published in 1919. German reviews of the book misrepresented it as proving that the German army had been betrayed on the home front by being "dagger-stabbed from behind by the civilian populace" ("von der Zivilbevölkerung von hinten erdolcht"), an interpretation that Maurice disavowed in the German press, to no effect. According to William L. Shirer, Ludendorff used the reviews of the book to convince Hindenburg about the validity of the myth.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: On 18 November 1919, Ludendorff and Hindenburg appeared before the "Untersuchungsausschuß für Schuldfragen" ("Committee of Inquiry into Guilt") of the newly elected Weimar National Assembly, which was investigating the causes of the World War and Germany's defeat. The two generals appeared in civilian clothing, explaining publicly that to wear their uniforms would show too much respect to the commission. Hindenburg refused to answer questions from the chairman, and instead read a statement that had been written by Ludendorff. In his testimony he cited what Maurice was purported to have written, which provided his testimony's most memorable part. Hindenburg declared at the end of his – or Ludendorff's – speech: "As an English general has very truly said, the German Army was 'stabbed in the back'".


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Furthering, the specifics of what the stab-in-the-back myth are mentioned briefly by Kaiser Wilhelm II in his memoir:I immediately summoned Field Marshal von Hindenburg and the Quartermaster General, General Gröner. General Gröner again announced that the army could fight no longer and wished rest above all else, and that, therefore, any sort of armistice must be unconditionally accepted; that the armistice must be concluded as soon as possible, since the army had supplies for only six to eight days more and was cut off from all further supplies by the rebels, who had occupied all the supply storehouses and Rhine bridges; that, for some unexplained reason, the armistice commission sent to France–consisting of Erzberger, Ambassador Count Oberndorff, and General von Winterfeldt–which had crossed the French lines two evenings before, had sent no report as to the nature of the conditions.Paul von Hindenburg, Chief of the Great General Staff at the time of the Ludendorff Offensive, also mentioned this event in a statement explaining the Kaiser’s abdication:The conclusion of the armistice was directly impending. At moment of the highest military tension revolution broke out in Germany, the insurgents seized the Rhine bridges, important arsenals, and traffic centres in the rear of the army, thereby endangering the supply of ammunition and provisions, while the supplies in the hands of the troops were only enough to last for a few days.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The troops on the lines of communication and the reserves disbanded themselves, and unfavourable reports arrived concerning the reliability of the field army proper.It was particularly this testimony of Hindenburg that led to the widespread acceptance of the "Dolchstoßlegende" in post-World War I Germany.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The antisemitic instincts of the German Army were revealed well before the stab-in-the-back myth became the military's excuse for losing the war. In October 1916, in the middle of the war, the army ordered a Jewish census of the troops, with the intent to show that Jews were under-represented in the "Heer" (army), and that they were over represented in non-fighting positions. Instead, the census showed just the opposite, that Jews were over-represented both in the army as a whole and in fighting positions at the front. The Imperial German Army then suppressed the results of the census.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Charges of a Jewish conspiratorial element in Germany's defeat drew heavily upon figures such as Kurt Eisner, a Berlin-born German Jew who lived in Munich. He had written about the illegal nature of the war from 1916 onward, and he also had a large hand in the Munich revolution until he was assassinated in February 1919. The Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert violently suppressed workers' uprisings with the help of Gustav Noske and Reichswehr General Groener, and tolerated the paramilitary Freikorps forming all across Germany. In spite of such tolerance, the Republic's legitimacy was constantly attacked with claims such as the stab-in-the-back. Many of its representatives such as Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau were assassinated, and the leaders were branded as "criminals" and Jews by the right-wing press dominated by Alfred Hugenberg.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Anti-Jewish sentiment was intensified by the Bavarian Soviet Republic (6 April – 3 May 1919), a communist government which briefly ruled the city of Munich before being crushed by the Freikorps. Many of the Bavarian Soviet Republic's leaders were Jewish, allowing antisemitic propagandists to connect Jews with Communism, and thus treason.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: In 1919, "Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund" ("German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation") leader Alfred Roth, writing under the pseudonym "Otto Arnim", published the book "The Jew in the Army" which he said was based on evidence gathered during his participation on the "Judenzählung", a military census which had in fact shown that German Jews had served in the front lines proportionately to their numbers. Roth's work claimed that most Jews involved in the war were only taking part as profiteers and spies, while he also blamed Jewish officers for fostering a defeatist mentality which impacted negatively on their soldiers. As such, the book offered one of the earliest published versions of the stab-in-the-back legend.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: A version of the stab-in-the-back myth was publicized in 1922 by the anti-Semitic Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg in his primary contribution to Nazi theory on Zionism, "Der Staatsfeindliche Zionismus" ("Zionism, the Enemy of the State"). Rosenberg accused German Zionists of working for a German defeat and supporting Britain and the implementation of the Balfour Declaration.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The "Dolchstoß" was a central image in propaganda produced by the many right-wing and traditionally conservative political parties that sprang up in the early days of the Weimar Republic, including Hitler's Nazi Party. For Hitler himself, this explanatory model for World War I was of crucial personal importance. He had learned of Germany's defeat while being treated for temporary blindness following a gas attack on the front. In "Mein Kampf", he described a vision at this time which drove him to enter politics. Throughout his career, he railed against the "November criminals" of 1918, who had stabbed the German Army in the back.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The German historian Friedrich Meinecke attempted to trace the roots of the expression "stab-in-the-back" in a 11 June 1922 article in the Viennese newspaper "Neue Freie Presse". In the 1924 national election, the Munich cultural journal "Süddeutsche Monatshefte" published a series of articles blaming the SPD and trade unions for Germany's defeat in World War I, which came out during the trial of Adolf Hitler and Ludendorff for high treason following the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The editor of an SPD newspaper sued the journal for defamation, giving rise to what is known as the "Munich Dolchstoßprozess" from 19 October to 20 November 1925. Many prominent figures testified in that trial, including members of the parliamentary committee investigating the reasons for the defeat, so some of its results were made public long before the publication of the committee report in 1928.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: The Allied policy of unconditional surrender was devised in 1943 in part to avoid a repetition of the stab-in-the-back myth. According to historian John Wheeler-Bennett, speaking from the British perspective,It was necessary for the Nazi régime and/or the German Generals to surrender unconditionally in order to bring home to the German people that they had lost the War by themselves; so that their defeat should not be attributed to a "stab in the back".


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: To some Germans, the idea of a "stab in the back" was evocative of Richard Wagner's 1876 opera "Götterdämmerung", in which Hagen murders his enemy Siegfried – the hero of the story – with a spear in his back.


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Historian Richard McMasters Hunt argues in a 1958 article that the myth was an irrational belief which commanded the force of irrefutable emotional convictions for millions of Germans. He suggests that behind these myths was a sense of communal shame, not for causing the war, but for losing it. Hunt argues that it was not the guilt of wickedness, but the shame of weakness that seized Germany's national psychology, and "served as a solvent of the Weimar democracy and also as an ideological cement of Hitler's dictatorship".


title: Stab-in-the-back myth

text: Parallel interpretations of national trauma after military defeat appear in other countries. For example, it was applied to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War and in the mythology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Practical electric vehicles appeared during the 1890s. An electric vehicle held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900. In the 20th century, the high cost, low top speed, and short-range of battery electric vehicles, compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, led to a worldwide decline in their use as private motor vehicles. Electric vehicles have continued to be used for loading and freight equipment and for public transport – especially rail vehicles.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in electric and alternative fuel vehicles in private motor vehicles increased due to: growing concern over the problems associated with hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles, including damage to the environment caused by their emissions; the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon-based transportation infrastructure; and improvements in electric vehicle technology.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Since 2010, combined sales of all-electric cars and utility vans achieved 1 million units delivered globally in September 2016, 4.8 million electric cars in use at the end of 2019, and cumulative sales of light-duty plug-in electric cars reached the 10 million unit milestone by the end of 2020. The global ratio between annual sales of battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids went from 56:44 in 2012 to 74:26 in 2019, and fell to 69:31 in 2020. , the fully electric Tesla Model 3 is the world's all-time best selling plug-in electric passenger car, with around 645,000 units.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The invention of the first model electric vehicle is attributed to various people. In 1828, the Hungarian priest and physicist Ányos Jedlik invented an early type of electric motor, and created a small model car powered by his new motor. Between 1832 and 1839, Scottish inventor Robert Anderson also invented a crude electric carriage. In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker from Germany also created a small-scale electric car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a similar contraption which operated on a short, circular, electrified track. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837, in Scotland by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen. It was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Davidson later built a larger locomotive named "Galvani", exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators. It hauled a load of at for a distance of . It was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their security of employment.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: A patent for the use of rails as conductors of electric current was granted in England in 1840, and similar patents were issued to Lilley and Colten in the United States in 1847.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Rechargeable batteries that provided a viable means for storing electricity on board a vehicle did not come into being until 1859, with the invention of the lead–acid battery by French physicist Gaston Planté. Camille Alphonse Faure, another French scientist, significantly improved the design of the battery in 1881; his improvements greatly increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacture on an industrial scale.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: What is likely the first human-carrying electric vehicle with its own power source was tested along a Paris street in April 1881 by French inventor Gustave Trouvé. In 1880 Trouvé improved the efficiency of a small electric motor developed by Siemens (from a design purchased from in 1867) and using the recently developed rechargeable battery, fitted it to an English James Starley tricycle, so inventing the world's first electric vehicle. Although this was successfully tested on 19 April 1881 along the Rue Valois in central Paris, he was unable to patent it. Trouvé swiftly adapted his battery-powered motor to marine propulsion; to make it easy to carry his marine conversion to and from his workshop to the nearby River Seine, Trouvé made it portable and removable from the boat, thus inventing the outboard motor. On 26 May 1881, the 5-metre Trouvé boat prototype, called Le Téléphone reached a speed of going upstream and downstream.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: English inventor Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite, built his first electric car in Wolverhampton in 1884, although the only documentation is a photograph from 1895.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Parker's long-held interest in the construction of more fuel-efficient vehicles led him to experiment with electric vehicles. He also may have been concerned about the malign effects smoke and pollution were having in London. Production of the car was in the hands of the Elwell-Parker Company, established in 1882 for the construction and sale of electric trams. The company merged with other rivals in 1888 to form the Electric Construction Corporation; this company had a virtual monopoly on the British electric car market in the 1890s. The company manufactured the first electric 'dog cart' in 1896.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: France and the United Kingdom were the first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles. German engineer Andreas Flocken built the first real electric car in 1888.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Electric trains were also used to transport coal out of mines, as their motors did not use up precious oxygen. Before the pre-eminence of internal combustion engines, electric automobiles also held many speed and distance records. Among the most notable of these records was the breaking of the speed barrier, by Camille Jenatzy on 29 April 1899 in his 'rocket-shaped' vehicle Jamais Contente, which reached a top speed of . Also notable was Ferdinand Porsche's design and construction of an all-wheel drive electric car, powered by a motor in each hub, which also set several records in the hands of its owner E.W. Hart.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The first electric car in the United States was developed in 1890–91 by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa; the vehicle was a six-passenger wagon capable of reaching a speed of . It was not until 1895 that consumers began to devote attention to electric vehicles after A.L. Ryker introduced the first electric tricycles to the U.S.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Electric battery-powered taxis became available at the end of the 19th century. In London, Walter Bersey designed a fleet of such cabs and introduced them to the streets of London in 1897. They were soon nicknamed "Hummingbirds" due to the idiosyncratic humming noise they made. In the same year in New York City, the Samuel's Electric Carriage and Wagon Company began running 12 electric hansom cabs. The company ran until 1898 with up to 62 cabs operating until it was reformed by its financiers to form the Electric Vehicle Company.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Electric vehicles had a number of advantages over their early-1900s competitors. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. They also did not require gear changes. (While steam-powered cars also had no gear shifting, they suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings.) The cars were also preferred because they did not require a manual effort to start, as did gasoline cars which featured a hand crank to start the engine.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Electric cars found popularity among well-heeled customers who used them as city cars, where their limited range proved to be even less of a disadvantage.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Acceptance of electric cars was initially hampered by a lack of power infrastructure. In the United States by the turn of the century, 40 percent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline. A total of 33,842 electric cars were registered in the United States, and the U.S. became the country where electric cars had gained the most acceptance. Most early electric vehicles were massive, ornate carriages designed for the upper-class customers that made them popular. They featured luxurious interiors and were replete with expensive materials. Electric vehicles were often marketed as luxury cars for women, which may have generated a stigma among male consumers. Sales of electric cars peaked in the early 1910s. There were over 300 listed manufacturers who produced a vehicle in the United States until 1942.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: To overcome the limited operating range of electric vehicles, and the lack of recharging infrastructure, an exchangeable battery service was first proposed as early as 1896. The concept was first put into practice by Hartford Electric Light Company through the GeVeCo battery service and was initially available for electric trucks. The vehicle owner purchased the vehicle from General Vehicle Company (GVC, a subsidiary of the General Electric Company) without a battery and the electricity was purchased from Hartford Electric through an exchangeable battery. The owner paid a variable per-mile charge and a monthly service fee to cover the maintenance and storage of the truck. Both vehicles and batteries were modified to facilitate a fast battery exchange. The service was provided between 1910 and 1924 and during that period covered more than 6 million miles. Beginning in 1917 a similar successful service was operated in Chicago for owners of Milburn Wagon Company cars who also could buy the vehicle without the batteries.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In New York City, in the pre-World War I era, ten electric vehicle companies banded together to form the New York Electric Vehicle Association. The association included manufacturers and dealers, among them General Motors' truck division, and the aforementioned General Vehicle division of General Electric, which claimed to have almost 2,000 operating vehicles in the metropolitan region. When opening their flagship department store, Lord and Taylor boasted of its electric vehicle fleet – numbering 38 trucks – and the conveyor system to efficiently load and unload goods.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: After enjoying success at the beginning of the 20th century, the electric car began to lose its position in the automobile market. A number of developments contributed to this situation. By the 1920s an improved road infrastructure improved travel times, creating a need for vehicles with a greater range than that offered by electric cars. Worldwide discoveries of large petroleum reserves led to the wide availability of affordable gasoline, making gas-powered cars cheaper to operate over long distances. Electric cars were limited to urban use by their slow speed (no more than 24–32 km/h or 15–20 mph) and low range (50–65 km or 30–40 miles), and gasoline cars were now able to travel farther and faster than equivalent electrics.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Gasoline cars also overcame much of their negatives compared to electrics, in several areas. Whereas ICE cars originally had to be hand-cranked to start – a difficult and sometimes dangerous activity – the invention of the electric starter by Charles Kettering in 1912 eliminated the need of a hand starting crank. Further, while gasoline engines are inherently noisier than electric motors, the invention of the muffler by Milton O. Reeves and Marshall T. Reeves in 1897 significantly reduced the noise to tolerable levels. Finally, the initiation of mass production of gas-powered vehicles by Henry Ford brought their price down. By contrast, the price of similar electric vehicles continued to rise; by 1912, an electric car sold for almost double the price of a gasoline car.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Most electric car makers stopped production at some point in the 1910s. Electric vehicles became popular for certain applications where their limited range did not pose major problems. Forklift trucks were electrically powered when they were introduced by Yale in 1923. In Europe, especially the United Kingdom, milk floats were powered by electricity, and for most of the 20th century the majority of the world's battery electric road vehicles were British milk floats. Electric golf carts were produced by Lektro as early as 1954. By the 1920s, the early heyday of electric cars had passed, and a decade later, the electric automobile industry had effectively disappeared.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Years passed without a major revival in the use of electric cars. Fuel-starved European countries fighting in World War II experimented with electric cars such as the British milk floats and the French Bréguet Aviation car, but overall, while ICE development progressed at a brisk pace, electric vehicle technology stagnated. In the late 1950s, Henney Coachworks and the National Union Electric Company, makers of Exide batteries, formed a joint venture to produce a new electric car, the Henney Kilowatt, based on the French Renault Dauphine. The car was produced in 36-volt and 72-volt configurations. The 72-volt models had a top speed approaching and could travel for nearly an hour on a single charge. Despite Kilowatt's improved performance with respect to previous electric cars, it was about double the cost of a regular gasoline-powered Dauphine, and production ended in 1961.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In 1959, American Motors Corporation (AMC) and Sonotone Corporation announced a joint research effort to consider producing an electric car powered by a "self-charging" battery. AMC had a reputation for innovation in economical cars while Sonotone had technology for making sintered plate nickel-cadmium batteries that could be recharged rapidly and weighed less than traditional lead-acid versions. That same year, Nu-Way Industries showed an experimental electric car with a one-piece plastic body that was to begin production in early 1960.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In the mid-1960s a few battery-electric concept cars appeared, such as the Scottish Aviation Scamp (1965), and an electric version of General Motors gasoline car, the Electrovair (1966). None of them entered production. The 1973 Enfield 8000 did make it into small-scale production, 112 were eventually produced. In 1967, AMC partnered with Gulton Industries to develop a new battery based on lithium and a speed controller designed by Victor Wouk. A nickel-cadmium battery supplied power to an all-electric 1969 Rambler American station wagon. Other "plug-in" experimental AMC vehicles developed with Gulton included the Amitron (1967) and the similar Electron (1977).


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: On 31 July 1971, an electric car received the unique distinction of becoming the first manned vehicle to drive on the Moon; that car was the Lunar Roving Vehicle, which was first deployed during the Apollo 15 mission. The "Moon buggy" was developed by Boeing and GM subsidiary Delco Electronics (co-founded by Kettering) featured a DC drive motor in each wheel, and a pair of 36-volt silver-zinc potassium hydroxide non-rechargeable batteries.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: After years outside the limelight, the energy crises of the 1970s and 1980s brought about renewed interest in the perceived independence electric cars had from the fluctuations of the hydrocarbon energy market. However, vehicles such as the intensely-marketed Sinclair C5 failed. General Motors created a concept car using another gasoline car as the base, the Electrovette (1976). At the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show, General Motors President Roger Smith unveiled the GM Impact electric concept car, along with the announcement that GM would build electric cars for sale to the public.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: From the 1960s to the 1990s, a number of companies made battery electric vehicles converted from existing manufactured models, often using gliders. None were sold in large numbers, with sales hampered by high cost and a limited range. Most of these vehicles were sold to government agencies and electric utility companies. The passage of the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1976 in the US provided government incentives for development of electric vehicles in the US. Electric Fuel Propulsion Corporation (now Apollo Energy Systems) produced the Electrosport (a converted AMC Hornet), the Mars I (a converted Renault Dauphine), and the Mars II (a converted Renault R-10). Jet Industries sold the Electra-Van 600 (a converted Subaru Sambar 600), the Electra-Van 750 (converted Mazda B2000/Ford Courier pickup trucks), the Electrica (converted Ford Escort/Mercury Lynx cars) and the Electrica 007 (converted Dodge Omni 024/Plymouth Horizon TC3 cars). U.S. Electricar Corp., based in Massachusetts, sold the Lectric Leopard, a converted Renault 5. Electric Vehicle Associates sold the Current Fare (a converted Ford Fairmont) and the Change of Pace (a converted AMC Pacer). U.S. Electricar, Inc., based in California, sold a converted Geo Prizm. Solectria Corporation (now Azure Dynamics) sold the Solectria Force (a converted Geo Metro) and the E10 (a converted Chevrolet S-10). Later, General Motors would also produce an electric S-10, the Chevrolet S-10 EV, based on the General Motors EV1.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In the early 1990s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the government of California's "clean air agency", began a push for more fuel-efficient, lower-emissions vehicles, with the ultimate goal being a move to zero-emissions vehicles such as electric vehicles. In response, automakers developed electric models, including the Chrysler TEVan, Ford Ranger EV pickup truck, GM EV1 and S10 EV pickup, Honda EV Plus hatchback, Nissan lithium-battery Altra EV miniwagon and Toyota RAV4 EV.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The automakers were accused of pandering to the wishes of CARB in order to continue to be allowed to sell cars in the lucrative Californian market, while failing to adequately promote their electric vehicles in order to create the impression that the consumers were not interested in the cars, all the while joining oil industry lobbyists in vigorously protesting CARB's mandate. GM's program came under particular scrutiny; in an unusual move, consumers were not allowed to purchase EV1s, but were instead asked to sign closed-end leases, meaning that the cars had to be returned to GM at the end of the lease period, with no option to purchase, despite leasee interest in continuing to own the cars. Chrysler, Toyota, and a group of GM dealers sued CARB in Federal court.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: After public protests by EV drivers' groups upset by the repossession of their cars, Toyota offered the last 328 RAV4-EVs for sale to the general public for six months until 22 November 2002. Almost all other production electric cars were withdrawn from the market and were in some cases seen to have been destroyed by their manufacturers. Toyota continues to support the several hundred Toyota RAV4-EV in the hands of the general public and in fleet usage. GM famously de-activated the few EV1s that were donated to engineering schools and museums.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Throughout the 1990s, interest in fuel-efficient or environmentally friendly cars declined among consumers in the United States, who instead favored sport utility vehicles, which were affordable to operate despite their poor fuel efficiency thanks to lower gasoline prices. Domestic U.S. automakers chose to focus their product lines on truck-based vehicles, which enjoyed larger profit margins than the smaller cars which were preferred in places like Europe or Japan.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Most electric vehicles on the world roads were low-speed, low-range neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs). Pike Research estimated there were almost 479,000 NEVs on the world roads in 2011. , there were between 60,000 and 76,000 low-speed battery-powered vehicles in use in the United States, up from about 56,000 in 2004. North America's top-selling NEV is the Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) vehicles, with more than 50,000 units sold worldwide by mid 2014. The world's two largest NEV markets in 2011 were the United States, with 14,737 units sold, and France, with 2,231 units. Other micro electric cars sold in Europe was the Kewet, since 1991, and replaced by the Buddy, launched in 2008. Also the Th!nk City was launched in 2008 but production was halted due to financial difficulties. Production restarted in Finland in December 2009. The Th!nk was sold in several European countries and the U.S. In June 2011 Think Global filed for bankruptcy and production was halted. Worldwide sales reached 1,045 units by March 2011. A total of 200,000 low-speed small electric cars were sold in China in 2013, most of which are powered by lead-acid batteries. These electric vehicles are not considered by the government as new energy vehicles due to safety and environmental concerns, and consequently, do not enjoy the same benefits as highway legal plug-in electric cars.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: California electric car maker Tesla Motors began development in 2004 on the Tesla Roadster, which was first delivered to customers in 2008. The Roadster was the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than per charge. Since 2008, Tesla sold approximately 2,450 Roadsters in over 30 countries through December 2012. Tesla sold the Roadster until early 2012, when its supply of Lotus Elise gliders ran out, as its contract with Lotus Cars for 2,500 gliders expired at the end of 2011. Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster in the U.S. market in August 2011, and the 2012 Tesla Roadster was sold in limited numbers only in Europe, Asia and Australia.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Mitsubishi i-MiEV was launched in Japan for fleet customers in July 2009, and for individual customers in April 2010, followed by sales to the public in Hong Kong in May 2010, and Australia in July 2010 via leasing. The i-MiEV was launched in Europe in December 2010, including a rebadged version sold in Europe as Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero. The market launch in the Americas began in Costa Rica in February 2011, followed by Chile in May 2011. Fleet and retail customer deliveries in the U.S. and Canada began in December 2011. Accounting for all vehicles of the iMiEV brand, Mitsubishi reports around 27,200 units sold or exported since 2009 through December 2012, including the minicab MiEVs sold in Japan, and the units rebadged and sold as Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero in the European market.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Senior leaders at several large automakers, including Nissan and General Motors, have stated that the Roadster was a catalyst which demonstrated that there is pent-up consumer demand for more efficient vehicles. In an August 2009 edition of The New Yorker, GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz was quoted as saying, ""All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us – and boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, 'How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can't?' That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam.""


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Nissan Leaf, introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, became the first modern all-electric, zero tailpipe emission five door family hatchback to be produced for the mass market from a major manufacturer. , the Leaf is also available in Australia, Canada and 17 European countries.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Better Place network was the first modern commercial deployment of the battery swapping model. The Renault Fluence Z.E. was the first mass production electric car enable with switchable battery technology and sold for the Better Place network in Israel and Denmark. Better Place launched its first battery-swapping station in Israel, in Kiryat Ekron, near Rehovot in March 2011. The battery exchange process took five minutes. , there were 17 battery switch stations fully operational in Denmark enabling customers to drive anywhere across the country in an electric car. By late 2012 the company began to suffer financial difficulties, and decided to put on hold the roll out in Australia and reduce its non-core activities in North America, as the company decided to concentrate its resources on its two existing markets. On 26 May 2013, Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel. The company's financial difficulties were caused by the high investment required to develop the charging and swapping infrastructure, about million in private capital, and a market penetration significantly lower than originally predicted by Shai Agassi. Less than 1,000 Fluence Z.E. cars were deployed in Israel and around 400 units in Denmark.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Smart electric drive, Wheego Whip LiFe, Mia electric, Volvo C30 Electric, and the Ford Focus Electric were launched for retail customers during 2011. The BYD e6, released initially for fleet customers in 2010, began retail sales in Shenzhen, China in October 2011. The Bolloré Bluecar was released in December 2011 and deployed for use in the Autolib' carsharing service in Paris. Leasing to individual and corporate customers began in October 2012 and is limited to the Île-de-France area. In February 2011, the Mitsubishi i MiEV became the first electric car to sell more than 10,000 units, including the models badged in Europe as Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot. The record was officially registered by Guinness World Records. Several months later, the Nissan Leaf overtook the i MiEV as the best selling all-electric car ever, and by February 2013 global sales of the Leaf reached the 50,000 unit mark.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The next Tesla vehicle, the Model S, was released in the U.S. on 22 June 2012 and the first delivery of a Model S to a retail customer in Europe took place on 7 August 2013. Deliveries in China began on 22 April 2014. The next model was the Tesla Model X. Other models released to the market in 2012 and 2013 include the BMW ActiveE, Coda, Renault Fluence Z.E., Honda Fit EV, Toyota RAV4 EV, Renault Zoe, Roewe E50, Mahindra e2o, Chevrolet Spark EV, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive, Fiat 500e, Volkswagen e-Up!, BMW i3, and Kandi EV. Toyota released the Scion iQ EV in the U.S. (Toyota eQ in Japan) in 2013. The car production is limited to 100 units. The first 30 units were delivered to the University of California, Irvine in March 2013 for use in its Zero Emission Vehicle-Network Enabled Transport (ZEV-NET) carsharing fleet. Toyota announced that 90 out of the 100 vehicles produced globally will be placed in carsharing demonstration projects in the United States and the rest in Japan.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Coda sedan went out of production in 2013, after selling only about 100 units in California. Its manufacturer, Coda Automotive, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 1 May 2013. The company stated that it expects to emerge from the bankruptcy process to focus on energy storage solutions as it has decided to abandon car manufacturing.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Tesla Model S ranked as the top-selling plug-in electric car in North America during the first quarter of 2013 with 4,900 cars sold, ahead of the Nissan Leaf (3,695). European retail deliveries of the Tesla Model S began in Oslo in August 2013, and during its first full month in the market, the Model S ranked as the top-selling car in Norway with 616 units delivered, representing a market share of 5.1% of all the new cars sold in the country in September 2013, becoming the first electric car to top the new car sales ranking in any country, and contributing to a record all-electric car market share of 8.6% of new car sales during that month. In October 2013, an electric car was the best selling car in the country for a second month in a row. This time was the Nissan Leaf with 716 units sold, representing a 5.6% of new car sales that month.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Renault–Nissan Alliance reached global sales of 100,000 all-electric vehicles in July 2013. The 100,000th customer was a U.S. student who bought a Nissan Leaf. In mid January 2014, global sales of the Nissan Leaf reached the 100,000 unit milestone, representing a 45% market share of worldwide pure electric vehicles sold since 2010.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: , there were over 500,000 plug-in electric passenger cars and utility vans in the world, with the U.S. leading plug-in electric car sales with a 45% share of global sales. In September 2014, sales of plug-in electric cars in the United States reached the 250,000 unit milestone. Global cumulative sales of the Tesla Model S passed the 50,000 unit milestone in October 2014. In November 2014 the Renault–Nissan Alliance reached 200,000 all-electric vehicles delivered globally, representing a 58% share of the global light-duty all-electric market segment.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The world's top-selling all-electric cars in 2014 were the Nissan Leaf (61,507), Tesla Model S (31,655), BMW i3 (16,052), and the Renault Zoe (11,323). Accounting for plug-in hybrids, the Leaf and the Model S also ranked first and second correspondingly among the world's top 10 selling plug-in electric cars. All-electric models released to the retail customers in 2014 include the BMW Brilliance Zinoro 1E, Chery eQ, Geely-Kandi Panda EV, Zotye Zhidou E20, Kia Soul EV, Volkswagen e-Golf, Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive, and Venucia e30.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt EV concept car at the 2015 North American International Auto Show. The Bolt is scheduled for availability in late 2016 as a model year 2017. GM anticipates the Bolt will deliver an all-electric range more than , with pricing starting at before any applicable government incentives. The European version, marketed as the Opel Ampera-e, will go into production in 2017.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In May 2015, global sales of highway legal all-electric passenger cars and light utility vehicles passed the 500,000 unit milestone, accounting for sales since 2008. Out these, Nissan accounts for about 35%, Tesla Motors about 15%, and Mitsubishi about 10%. Also in May 2015, the Renault Zoe and the BMW i3 passed the 25,000 unit global sales milestone. Worldwide sales of the Model S passed the 75,000 unit milestone in June 2015.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: By early June 2015, the Renault–Nissan Alliance continued as the leading all-electric vehicle manufacturer with global sales of over 250,000 pure electric vehicles representing about half of the global light-duty all-electric market segment. Nissan sales totaled 185,000 units, which includes the Nissan Leaf and the e-NV200 van. Renault has sold 65,000 electric vehicles, and its line-up includes the ZOE passenger car, the Kangoo Z.E. van, the SM3 Z.E. (previously Fluence Z.E.) sedan and the Twizy heavy quadricycle.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: By mid-September 2015, the global stock of highway legal plug-in electric passenger cars and utility vans passed the one million sales milestone, with the pure electrics capturing about 62% of global sales. The United States is the plug-in segment market leader with a stock of over 363,000 plug-in electric cars delivered since 2008 through August 2015, representing 36.3% of global sales. The state of California is the largest plug-in car regional market, with more than 158,000 units sold between December 2010 and June 2015, representing 46.5% of all plug-in cars sold in the U.S. Until December 2014, California not only had more plug-in electric vehicles than any other state in the nation, but also more than any other country.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: , China ranked as the world's second top-selling country plug-in market, with over 157,000 units sold since 2011 (15.7%), followed by Japan with more than 120,000 plug-in units sold since 2009 (12.1%). , over 310,000 light-duty plug-in electric vehicles have been registered in the European market since 2010. European sales are led by Norway, followed by the Netherlands, and France. In the heavy-duty segment, China is the world's leader, with over 65,000 buses and other commercial vehicles sold through August 2015.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: , global sales of electric cars were led by the Nissan Leaf with over 200,000 units sold making the Leaf the world's top-selling highway-capable electric car in history. The Tesla Model S, with global deliveries of more than 100,000 units, listed as the world's second best selling all-electric car of all-time. The Model S ranked as the world's best selling plug-in electric vehicle in 2015, up from second best in 2014. The Model S was also the top-selling plug-in car in the U.S. in 2015. Most models released in the world's markets to retail customers during 2015 were plug-in hybrids. The only new series production all-electric cars launched up to October 2015 were the BYD e5 and the Tesla Model X, together with several variants of the Tesla Model S line-up.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Tesla Model 3 was unveiled on 31 March 2016. With pricing starting at and an all-electric range of , the Model 3 is Tesla Motors first vehicle aimed for the mass market. Before the unveiling event, over 115,000 people had reserved the Model 3. , one week after the event, Tesla Motors reported over 325,000 reservations, more than triple the 107,000 Model S cars Tesla had sold by the end of 2015. These reservations represent potential sales of over . , Tesla Motors has sold almost 125,000 electric cars worldwide since delivery of its first Tesla Roadster in 2008. Tesla reported the number of net reservations totaled about 373,000 , after about 8,000 customer cancellations and about 4,200 reservations canceled by the automaker because these appeared to be duplicates from speculators.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Hyundai Ioniq Electric was released in South Korea in July 2016, and sold over 1,000 units during its first two months in the market. The Renault-Nissan Alliance achieved the milestone of 350,000 electric vehicles sold globally in August 2016, and also set an industry record of 100,000 electric vehicles sold in a single year. Nissan global electric vehicle sales passed the 250,000 unit milestone also in August 2016. Renault global electric vehicle sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in early September 2016. Global sales of the Tesla Model X passed the 10,000 unit mark in August 2016, with most cars delivered in the United States.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Cumulative global sales of pure electric passenger cars and utility vans passed the 1 million unit milestone in September 2016. Global sales of the Tesla Model S achieved the 150,000 unit milestone in November 2016, four years and five months after its introduction, and just five more months than it took the Nissan Leaf to achieve the same milestone. Norway achieved the milestone of 100,000 all-electric vehicles registered in December 2016. Retail deliveries of the Chevrolet Bolt EV began in the San Francisco Bay Area on 13 December 2016. In December 2016, Nissan reported that Leaf owners worldwide achieved the milestone of driven collectively through November 2016, saving the equivalent of nearly of emissions. Global Nissan Leaf sales passed 250,000 units delivered in December 2016. The Tesla Model S was the world's best-selling plug-in electric car in 2016 for the second year running, with 50,931 units delivered globally.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In December 2016, Norway became the first country where 5% of all registered passenger cars were plug-in electric cars. When new car sales in Norway are categorised by powertrain or fuel, nine of the top ten best-selling models in 2016 were electric-drive models. The Norwegian electric-drive segment achieved a combined market share of 40.2% of new passenger car sales in 2016, consisting of 15.7% for all-electric cars, 13.4% for plug-in hybrids, and 11.2% for conventional hybris. A record monthly market share for the plug-in electric passenger segment in any country was achieved in Norway in January 2017 with 37.5% of new car sales; the plug-in hybrid segment reached a 20.0% market share of new passenger cars, and the all-electric car segment had a 17.5% market share. Also in January 2017, the electrified passenger car segment, consisting of plug-in hybrids, all-electric cars and conventional hybrids, for the first time ever surpassed combined sales of cars with a conventional diesel or gasoline engine, with a market share of 51.4% of new car sales that month. For many years Norwegian electric vehicles have been subsidised by approximately 50%, and have several other benefits, such as use of bus lanes and free parking. Many of these perks have been extended to 2020.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In February 2017 Consumer Reports named Tesla as the top car brand in the United States and ranked it 8th among global carmakers. Deliveries of the Tesla Model S passed the 200,000 unit milestone during the fourth quarter of 2017. Global sales of the Nissan Leaf achieved the 300,000 unit milestone in January 2018.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In September 2018, the Norwegian market share of all-electric cars reached 45.3% and plug-in hybrids 14.9%, for a combined market share of the plug-in car segment of 60.2% of new car registrations that month, becoming the world's highest-ever monthly market share for the plug-in electric passenger segment in Norway and in any country. Accounting for conventional hybrids, the electrified segment achieved an all-time record 71.5% market share in September 2018. In October 2018, Norway became the first country where 1 in every 10 passenger cars registered is a plug-in electric vehicle. Norway ended 2018 with plug-in market share of 49.1%, meaning that every second new passenger car sold in the country in 2018 was a plug-in electric. The market share for the all-electric segment was 31.2% in 2018.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: Tesla delivered its 100,000th Model 3 in October 2018. U.S. sales of the Model 3 reached the 100,000 unit milestone in November 2018, quicker than any previous model sold in the country. The Model 3 was the top-selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. for 12 consecutive months since January 2018, ending 2018 as the best-selling plug-in with an estimated all-time record of 139,782 units delivered, the first time a plug-in car sold more than 100 thousand units in a single year. In 2018, for the first time in any country, an all-electric car topped annual sales of the passenger car segment. The Nissan Leaf was Norway's best selling new passenger car model in 2018. The Tesla Model 3 listed as the world's best selling plug-in electric car in 2018.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: In January 2019, with 148,046 units sold since inception in the American market, the Model 3 overtook the Model S to become the all-time best selling all-electric car in the U.S. Until 2019, the Nissan Leaf was the world's all-time top-selling highway legal electric car, with global sales of 450,000 units through December 2019. The Tesla Model 3 ended 2019 as the world's best selling plug-in electric car for the second consecutive year, with just over 300,000 units delivered. Also, the Model 3 topped the annual list of best selling passenger car models in the overall market in two countries, Norway and the Netherlands.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The global stock of plug-in electric passenger cars reached 5.1 million units in December 2018, consisting of 3.3 million all-electric cars (65%) and 1.8 million plug-in hybrid cars (35%). The global ratio between BEVs and PHEVs has been shifting towards fully electric cars, it went from 56:44 in 2012 to 60:40 in 2015, and rose from 69:31 in 2018 to 74:26 in 2019. Despite the rapid growth experienced, the plug-in electric car segment represented just about 1 out of every 250 motor vehicles on the world's roads at the end of 2018.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Tesla Model 3 surpassed the Nissan Leaf in early 2020 to become the world's best selling electric car ever, with more than 500,000 total units sold by March 2020. However, the Tesla Model Y is the bestselling electric vehicle in terms of yearly units. Tesla also became the first auto manufacturer to produce 1 million electric cars in March 2020. Global sales of the Model 3 passed the 1 million milestone in June 2021, the first electric car model to do so.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The Nissan Leaf achieved the milestone of 500,000 units sold globally in early December 2020, 10 years after its inception. Combined sales of plug-in electric cars and light-duty commercial vans since 2010 achieved the 10 million unit milestone by the end of 2020.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: VinFast of VinGroup from Vietnam also introduced their electric vehicles such as VinFast Klara scooter, cars, .


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: The principal manufacturer of e-bikes globally is China, with 2009 seeing the manufacturing of 22.2 million units. In the world Geoby is the leading manufacturers of E-bikes. Pedego is the best selling in the U.S.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: China accounts for nearly 92% of the market worldwide. In China the number of electric bicycles on the road was 120 million in 2010. Jiangsu Yadea, an electric bicycle producer of renown in China, leads the ranking of China National Light Industry Council (CNLIC) electric bicycle industry for three years. It retains capacity of nearly 6 million electric bicycles a year.


title: History of the electric vehicle

text: First models of electric bicycles appeared in late 19th century. US Patent office registered several e-bike patents since 1895 to 1899 (Ogden Bolton patented battery-powered bicycle in 1895, Hosea W. Libbey patented bicycle with double electric motor in 1897 and John Schnepf patented electric motor with roller wheel).


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American musical project and band led and started by Anton Newcombe. It was formed in San Francisco in 1990.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The group was the subject of the 2004 documentary film called "Dig!", and have gained media notoriety for their tumultuous working relationships as well as the erratic behavior of Newcombe. The collective has released 18 albums, five compilation albums, five live albums, 13 EPs, 18 singles as well as two various-artist compilation albums to date.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The bandname is a "portmanteau" of deceased Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones and the 1978 Jonestown Massacre.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The collective was founded by Anton Newcombe in San Francisco between 1990 and 1993. Their first albums were compilations of recording sessions and an early demo tape, titled "Pol Pot's Pleasure Penthouse". This release became a popular bootleg.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: A second album, "Spacegirl and Other Favorites", was released in 1993 as a vinyl-only release and was compiled from what Newcombe called his "studio trash". The album includes "Hide and Seek", which was released as a single in 1994. The band's follow-up album, "Methodrone", was developed largely out of the concepts explored on "Spacegirl" and heavily influenced by the shoegaze genre that had gained prominence several years prior to its release. The album's ethereal rock sound is comparable to bands such as Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine. Two tracks from the album, "She Made Me" and "Evergreen," were released as a double A-side single in 1992. "Methodrone" was recorded primarily at a studio in the Hunter's Point region of San Francisco called The Compound, where Naut Humon provided an environment for Newcombe to record for hours on end.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: Over the next couple of years, the band shifted its sound from their more shoegaze, goth, and dream pop influences of the '80s and '90s into a '60s retro-futurist aesthetic. As line-up changes persisted, the band continued to record and in 1996 released three full-length studio albums. The first of these, "Take It from the Man!", is rooted heavily in the maximum rhythm and blues aesthetic of the 1960s British Invasion. The album includes the song "Straight Up and Down," which was later used as theme music for the HBO television drama series "Boardwalk Empire" (201014), and was engineered by Larry Thrasher of the influential group Psychic TV.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The band's second album released in 1996, "Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request" reflects a pastiche of 1960s psychedelia. The album also includes vast experimentation with a variety of different instrumentation including Indian drones, sitars, Mellotrons, farfisas, didgeridoos, tablas, congas, and glockenspiels. The title of the album is a play on words of the Rolling Stones' 1967 album "Their Satanic Majesties Request".


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The third and final album released that year was "Thank God for Mental Illness", a more stripped-down effort. Since the band did not have a drummer at the time, Newcombe took the opportunity to showcase more of his acoustic songwriting. The album explores more in-depth genres such as country and folk. At the end of the album Newcombe included an entire EP called "Sound of Confusion", compiled largely from earlier BJM recordings. "Sound of Confusion" features both regular songs and more abstract sound collages.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded their sixth album, "Give It Back!", in 1997 after relocating to Los Angeles from San Francisco. The album was tracked in a few short days leading up to the band's first US tour and includes the track, "Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth", a sardonic reply to The Dandy Warhols' single "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth", which had been perceived at the time as being directed at the BJM. "Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth" was featured on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's 2005 film "Broken Flowers". During this time, the BJM signed with TVT Records. This led to the release of the band's seventh full-length album, "Strung Out in Heaven", in 1998, as well as their first-ever tours of the UK and Japan. "Strung Out in Heaven" did not sell as many records as TVT had hoped, and the relationship between the label and the band deteriorated. TVT eventually dissolved its remaining contractual obligations with the band.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: In 1999, Which? Records released the EP, "Bringing It All Back Home – Again", a collection of songs largely written and recorded around the time the band were working on "Give It Back!" and "Strung Out in Heaven". In 2001, the band released their eighth studio album, "Bravery Repetition and Noise", which included the track "Sailor", a re-work of a song originally performed by The Cryan' Shames.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: In 2003, the band released their ninth studio album, "And This Is Our Music". "And This Is Our Music" was a step in a new direction for Newcombe and the group creatively, and emphasized more of the electronic music Newcombe had explored in the beginning days of the group. The album's title has been called a reference to the identically-titled, but distinct, albums "This Is Our Music" by the artists Galaxie 500 and Ornette Coleman.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: In 2005, the band released the EP "We Are the Radio" on Newcombe's own label, The Committee to Keep Music Evil, which features a close collaboration with independent singer-songwriter Sarabeth Tucek. This was the last BJM record to be recorded in the United States, as shortly after this Newcombe relocated to Europe.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The Brian Jonestown Massacre released their tenth studio album, "My Bloody Underground", in 2008 on Cargo Records. The album is directly inspired by the music made by bands My Bloody Valentine and The Velvet Underground. The record contains a highly experimental approach, and was recorded in collaboration with Mark Gardener, formerly of Ride, who co-wrote the song "Monkey Powder". The Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded both of their next releases in Iceland and Berlin.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: An EP entitled "One" was released in November 2009 and featured the tracks "One", "This Is the First of Your Last Warning" (which also appears on their next album, "Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?"), an English version of "This Is The First of Your Last Warning", and then exclusive track, "Bruttermania".


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: "Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?", the band's eleventh studio album, was released in February 2010. It featured musicians Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir (who recorded vocals on "My Bloody Underground"), Felix Bondareff from the Russian band Amazing Electronic Talking Cave, as well as the musician Will Carruthers. Soon after the album's release, it was confirmed that Matt Hollywood had returned to the band after an eleven-year absence. According to Newcombe, he would feature on the band's next album and also toured with the band.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: The Brian Jonestown Massacre released the album "Aufheben" on May 1, 2012. Newcombe stated that the album's title relates to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's use of the term, whereby something is destroyed in order to preserve it.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: "Revelation", the band's thirteenth studio album, was released in May 2014. It is the first album to be fully recorded and produced at Newcombe's recording studio in Berlin. Stylistically, the album mixes the traditional Brian Jonestown Massacre sound with Eastern influences.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: Their next album, "Musique de Film Imaginé", was released on April 27, 2015. The album was conceived as a soundtrack for an imaginary French film, and pays homage to European film directors of the late 1950s and 1960s such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. It was recorded in Berlin in August 2014.


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: In October 2016, the band released the album "Third World Pyramid", which was preceded by the single "The Sun Ship".


title: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

text: In March 2022, the band announced that two albums, "Fire Doesn't Grow on Trees" and "Your Future Is Your Past" were scheduled to be released in June and October of 2022 respectively.