It was the Ajax Motor Vehicle Company, which was located in New York City, that was credited with creating the first electric runabouts in the early 1900s in the United States. This was around the same time that a reference to an electric scooter was made in early editions of Popular Mechanics.
These two credits are among the first in the history of electric scooters. In the early 1920s, Ransomes did an electric cycle. This was followed by Aplicaciones Electro Mecaniques, which was a French company. He developed what he called the Electrocyclette in 1927. But it was actually more of a tricycle than a scooter, as it has two wheels at the front and one at the rear.
During World War II, much of the world experienced fuel shortages. This was brought about by the great expense of the war. Therefore, many people tried to remedy the situation by trying to invent an alternative to using gas for travel. During this stage in the history of the electric scooter, Earle Williams, who was an inventor, attempted to convert a gas-operated cycle to an electric one. His creation was called ParCar and was developed by the Marketeer Company. The European came out with his own versions making four hundred electric mopeds. A European company known as Socovel was responsible for this.
During the sixties and seventies many advances were made in the history of electric scooters. During these decades, a battery company called Union Carbide produced the alkaline fuel cell that was intended for use in electric motors. Attempts were also made to set land speed records using the electric version of the scooter. It was also during these times that mass-produced, street-legal electrical machines were manufactured. This was the first time in the history of electric scooters when the public saw a large number of electric vehicles being used on the streets.