38 Electric Car Companies Shaping the Future of Travel

These are the companies making electric cars more widely available to consumers and for commercial use.

rom the days of horse and carriage to the bullet trains and airplanes of today, people have always come up with creative ways to get from point A to point B. Unfortunately, the transportation industry has often been notoriously inefficient when it comes to energy consumption. 

With threats like global warming, it can be easy to give up hope that we’ll be able to course-correct. Luckily, there is a silver lining — technology companies of all backgrounds are working to make even the least environmentally friendly industry more sustainable, and the transportation sector is no exception.

The Rise of EV Companies

While it has gotten a lot more attention in recent years, electric car technology has been around a lot longer than you might think. In fact, the first electric cars predate today’s EV companies by over a century. 

Prototypes for electric carriages and trains date all the way back to the 1830s, though the first truly viable electric vehicle wasn’t built until the 1870s. In the early 1900s, electric vehicle technology enjoyed some time in the spotlight, but that attention faded once gas-powered cars became more widely available and affordable. 

In the past two decades however, electric cars have reentered the public imagination with full force. Concern about the environmental impact of gas and diesel powered engines have made many people think more seriously about electric vehicles as a viable and more efficient alternative, and as a result, the EV industry has exploded. Between 2020 and 2021, “light-duty plug-in electric vehicles” sales jumped by 85%, hitting more than 600,000, according to U.S. Department of Energy data. That’s in comparison to less than 100,000 sales a decade ago.

Electric car technology has made great strides in the past few years, going from a fringe luxury product to the new standard in automotive manufacturing. Electric vehicles now include sports cars, freight trucks, bikes and many other products designed to make travel easier, quicker and more eco-friendly. 

Take a look at this list of 37 electric car companies that are helping us increase our mobility while reducing our energy footprint.