Comment by squarefoot

The main innovation in modern electric cars isn't just about swapping fuel with electricity, but eliminating all junk in between that wasted power only to overcome ICE inherent flaws. More simple electronics aside, clutch, gearbox, then driveshaft are all gone, and they contributed to a huge waste of power, which burned a lot of fuel for nothing. This is so bad that where possible and economically feasible (trains and ships) they use mixed diesel-electric pairs with the diesel engine working as generator so that it would always run at maximum torque not being forced to start from zero rpm and not having its speed related with train and ship speed. The electric engine is indeed older than internal combustion one, however what makes it a better option also for cars required modern development, especially in batteries and rare earth magnets which would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago.