When you look at a high-tech electric car like a Tesla, it's easy to believe that electric vehicles are a recent invention.
But as these photos show, the history of the electric car goes back much longer than we might think.
The photos were taken as early as 1922 and show a woman dressed in a large hat and gloves posing in a garage with an electric car.
The car in the photos is a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton, a type of electric vehicle first produced in 1905.
Buying new, a car like this would have cost $1,600 in 1908, or around $44,000 (£34,803) in modern terms.
Someone plugging in their electric car to charge may seem like a typical scene from modern life. But these photos are anything but modern and were actually taken 112 years ago
When you look at a high-tech electric car like a Tesla, it's easy to believe that electric vehicles are a recent invention. But as these images show, the history of the electric car goes back much longer than we might think
The Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton was first launched in 1905 and was so popular that it completely sold out
The car in the photos is a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton, a type of electric vehicle first produced in 1905.
According to an earlier brochure from Columbia Electric Vehicles, this car was so popular at its introduction that it was completely sold out.
The brochure states that 'only one opinion was expressed about this carriage during the 1905 season, namely that it was the smartest, fastest, most modern and most reliable light electric carriage money could buy.'
It had 24 battery cells, three forward and two reverse gears, and could reach top speeds of up to 15 mph.
However, driving this car is nothing like a modern car.
Unlike many cars of this period, it still had a carriage-based design.
Without a steering wheel or accelerator pedal, the speed was controlled with a stick in the left hand.
Meanwhile, the driver steered the car like a boat using a tiller.
The brakes were then divided between two pedals, one of which was for parking and the other for deceleration.
The woman is shown connecting the car to a large device covered in dials and levers.
Electric cars were very common in the early 20th century, making up a third of all cars on the road
It may look very different from a Telsa charging station (left), but these images show the woman using a mercury arc rectifier to charge her car (right)
Although it may look very different from a modern version, this is actually the car's charging station.
Using a long cable, the woman is depicted plugging in her car to charge.
Unlike any charger you'll find today, this 1920s model uses something called a mercury arc rectifier.
The rectifier was invented in the early 20th century and converts alternating current from the mains into direct current that is used to charge the car batteries.
As a side effect, the rectifier also produces an eerie blue glow when turned on.
However, this would not have been an unusual scene in the homes of wealthy Americans.
Because they were so easy to operate, electric vehicles were often advertised to women in the 1900s as an alternative to a loud and dirty gasoline car.
The mercury arc rectifiers used to charge cars also produced an eerie blue glow when used
Electric cars were the vehicle of choice of the wealthy and were extremely popular and widespread.
In 1900, of the 4,192 registered vehicles on America's streets, more than 1,500 were powered by electricity.
The reason for their popularity was that the alternative energy sources were so poor.
In the twentieth century, the options for powering a cart were horses, steam, gasoline, or electricity.
At one point, electric vehicles almost became the standard car in America, until gasoline vehicle technology caught up
Steam was known, but the engines were too large and took too long to start in cold weather.
Gasoline cars were popular, but they were also dangerous, noisy and dirty.
A misfire while manually starting the engine of a gasoline car would easily break the driver's arm, and even when they were working, it took a lot of force to operate them.
For this reason, electric cars were especially popular with women and were often marketed to them.
In the car's description, the Victoria Phaeton is described as 'particularly suitable for use by ladies' and 'particularly well suited to the requirements of physicians'.
The photos are said to be part of an advertising campaign by General Electric to promote the cars among women.
Electric vehicles like this Fritchle electric car showed rapid advances in range and speed until they were eclipsed by the production of the Model-T Ford
Electric vehicles, on the other hand, were clean, quiet and easy to charge.
And by the time this photo was taken, charging devices were widely installed in private garages and large commercial charging stations.
As a 1911 New York Times article wrote: 'The designers of electric vehicles for passenger transportation have made great progress in recent years, and these machines have retained all their early popularity and are steadily increasing in popularity with both men and women . '
The article even goes on to say that the “best-known and leading makers of gasoline-powered cars in this country use electric cars to travel between their homes and offices.”
This commercial interest was accompanied by rapid advances in technology.
In 1909, the Fritchel Electric even claimed it could travel 100 miles on a single charge.
It wasn't until the creation of the Model-T Ford, which sold for about half the price of an electric car, that the popularity of the electric car began to decline.
Combined with the invention of the starter motor and muffler, gasoline cars would dominate the market until the modern revival of the electric vehicle.