As Ireland's EV sales surge, is the age of oil-powered vehicles nearly over?

Nearly 17,000 EVs were sold in Ireland in the first four months of this year — that’s one in four cars purchased. Is the age of oil-powered vehicles nearly over?

Electric vehicles bound for shipment at a port in China; Chinese manufacturers have recently unveiled new models boasting a 1,000-plus km range that can be fully charged in under 10 minutes. Picture: Bloomberg

Though it seems hard to imagine today, in the early years after the invention of the motor car in the 1880s, the nascent industry was dominated by electric vehicles (EVs). 

Had this trend continued, the oil-soaked and bloody history of the last century and a quarter would likely have been radically different.