If you were buying a car in 1899, you would've had three major options to choose from.
You could buy a steam-powered car.
Typically relying on gas-powered boilers, these could drive as far as you wanted — provided you also wanted to lug around extra water to refuel and didn't mind waiting 30 minutes for your engine to heat up.
Alternatively, you could buy a car powered by gasoline.
However, the internal combustion engines in these models required dangerous hand-cranking to start and emitted loud noises and foul-smelling exhaust while driving.
So your best bet was probably option number three: a battery-powered electric vehicle.
These cars were quick to start, clean and quiet to run, and if you lived somewhere with access to electricity, easy to refuel overnight.
If this seems like an easy choice, you're not alone.
By the end of the 19th century, nearly 40% of American cars were electric.
In cities with early electric systems, battery-powered cars were a popular and reliable alternative to their occasionally explosive competitors.
