Tama electric car also showed the way for the Nissan Leaf

Before electric or hybrid cars became popular, any vehicle powered by electricity was denigrated as a “golf cart.” But looking back to the pages of motoring history, a bold effort by the Tokyo Electro Automobile Co. Ltd. in the 1940s led to the birth of one of the first electric cars to run in the streets – the Tama electric car.

According to the website of Nissan Motors, Japan experienced a scarcity of oil right after World War II but there was plenty of electric power. That prompted the Japanese government to promote the manufacture of electric vehicles.