As recently as 10 or 15 years ago, discussions about electric vehicles were restricted to car enthusiasts looking for the automotive world's newest innovation. However, the history of electric vehicles dates as far back as the mid-1800s. According to the US Department of Energy, American inventor William Morris developed the first successful and commercially available electric vehicle in the USA in the 1890s. Electric cars sold commercially from 1900 to 1912 accounted for one-third of all vehicles on the road in the USA. The success of Henry Ford's Model-T and the discovery of plentiful and cheap oil led to the electric vehicle's decline for several decades.