this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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Electric cars existed long before the 2010s.
Late 19th/Early 20th century had about 1/3rd of all cars on the road be electric.
Long before lithium batteries were ever a thing.
Also, Theres a much higher demand thanks to the modern resurgence of electric cars, for better, cheaper batteries.
Which means that current car and battery makers have a much bigger incentive to jump on large scale miracle battery technology, than they did in the 1970s. Just like computers have much increased demand for ram today than they did in the 1970s. ๐
You want to tell me what the top speed and range of those cars were?
I think you'll find that the first modern resurgence in EV interest came in the 1970s, with the 1973 oil crisis.
If you research the history of battery technology I think you'll also find that it hasn't been static since 1900 with lithium ion popping up out of nowhere in 2008. In between we had things like nickel metal hydride cells, and for a few years before Li-ion became practical there were even some EVs that came with the option of molten salt batteries (called "ZEBRA" batteries) for extra range. Those things needed to be heated to 572ยฐ F in order to function. Nobody would have done that if they could've just instantly pulled a better battery technology out of their ass like you seem to think they can. By the way, the name "ZEBRA" comes from "Zeolite Battery Research Africa", the scientific project that invented them, which was started in 1985.
Hilarious comparison. I promise you that people wanted more computer memory in the 1970s.
While we're on the topic of computers though, do you know what the current state of the art is in chip fabrication? It is extreme ultraviolet photolithography, or EUV.
The first commercial product made with EUV was released in 2019 (the Samsung Galaxy Note 10) but the first EUV demonstration took place in 1986 at the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Originally they thought EUV would be ready by 2006, but it took an extra 13 years to develop.
Notably a number of other technologies, like contact lithography, electron beam projection, ion beam projection, and proximity x-ray were being developed simultaneously, in competition with EUV. EUV won out in the end but for a long time people were not sure which would be the most practical to implement.
So yes, the pop-sci articles written about stuff like this are stupid, but the idea that things are fake unless they can move from the lab to the factory floor within a year is just not how the world works.