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.The other thing that killed the electric car the first time around—and most people don’t know this—is that women loved them. You could just get in it; there was no hand-cranking.
You simply stepped on the pedal and away you went. Clara Ford, Henry Ford’s wife, wouldn’t drive a Model T. She drove a Baker Electric. So, EVs had fancy interiors with cut-glass flower vases. And, like today, you can’t sell a man a woman’s car.
-Jay Leno in Popular Mechanics, on the difficulties of advancing new car technology
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.