Milburn Electric Light BroughamMilburn Wagon Company began making electric vehicles in 1915, and sales quickly proved strong. The company sold around 1,000 units in its first year and 1,500 units the year after, with a range of body styles being launched to cater to the widest possible audience. The most successful of those was the Electric Light Brougham, which as its name suggests, was one of the most lightweight EVs on sale at the time. It was also one of the cheapest, helping it compete against the wave of gas-powered cars hitting the market. Milburn eventually sold over 4,000 examples of the car, although very few are thought to survive to the present day.Later models of the Electric Light Brougham featured removable batteries, which could be replaced quickly and easily. With an extra set of batteries, the car boasted 100 miles of range -– no mean feat for an EV that's now over a century old. Unfortunately, slowing electric car sales saw Milburn's fortunes wane and in 1923 it was bought out by General Motors, with its assembly plant subsequently being used to produce bodies for Buick.Sebring-Vanguard CitiCarThroughout the mid-20th century, the development of EVs was largely non-existent, as there was simply no demand for them -– gas was plentiful, and so was the American interest in large, high-margin vehicles. However, the oil crisis of the '70s meant there was a renewed interest in electric power, even if actual EV technology had barely advanced since the '20s. One of the hastily improvised solutions was the Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar, which was produced for just three years and featured a motor making a measly five horsepower. For context, the Porsche P1 of 1899 was just as powerful.The CitiCar could just about reach 40 mph and had a range of around 40 miles, although it was significantly cheaper than most gas-powered cars at the time. Like any startup car company, Sebring-Vanguard had its fair share of quality control issues, and the CitiCar was hit with three separate recalls during its short time on sale. The first of those concerned the seatbelts, which had been installed incorrectly, making them potentially "impossible to wear," according to the NHTSA. A year later, 499 CitiCars were recalled as the brakes could temporarily fail, and then an even larger recall was issued shortly after because of a fire risk caused by short-circuiting wires. Despite its inherent flaws, around 2,000 examples of the car were sold. However, by 1977, fears around the oil crisis had subsided, orders dried up, and Sebring-Vanguard was forced to declare bankruptcy.Chevrolet ElectrovetteOriginally unveiled in 1978, the Electrovette was designed in response to the widely held belief that gas prices would continue rising sharply throughout the '70s. Work on the concept started in 1976, with the aim of making an electric car that would be affordable to the masses and pack reasonable performance. Initially, nickel-zinc batteries were used to power the car's 63 horsepower motor, but they were later replaced with lead-acid batteries in an attempt to keep costs down.Chevrolet claimed that the Electrovette could reach speeds of up to 53 mph and could travel up to 50 miles at 30 mph. Those figures might have been enough to persuade a few buyers at the height of the oil crisis, but by the time the car was unveiled, fears over gas prices had largely died down. The car's unimpressive range and low top speed simply couldn't compete with the affordable gas-powered cars on the market at the time, so Chevy quietly shelved the Electrovette project and ceased EV development.