Working out who invented the car is a long and winding ... "At the beginning of the 20th Century, electric cars were very briefly more popular than internal combustion engine cars in America.
Barring electric vehicles, each and every vehicle needs some sort of combustible fuel. Until about four decades ago, almost every passenger car used a carburetor to handle its air and fuel needs.
However, that presented little problem because Edison had already invented the alkaline storage battery in 1901 and spent years perfecting it before placing it in the 1912 Edison electric car.