According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), electric cars were more popular than gasoline powered cars at the turn of the twentieth century "for much the same reasons that consumers are taking a second look at electric cars today: they did not emit noxious fumes, were quiet, smoother and easier to drive. Gasoline powered cars, says WIPO, took over the market due to cheap, abundant gas, good roads, and the low low price of Henry Ford's Model T with which no other car could compete...
The first Model T was actually built to run on hemp oil, although it also ran on gasoline, kerosene, moonshine or just about anything else you could put a match to. The car itself was made entirely of hemp whose resin-stiffened panels had an impact strength ten times that of steel.
