Electricity really is the ideal form of propulsion for the automobile because it is clean and quiet. They knew this at the turn of the century, but the problem was batteries and range – that was the main concern back then and it is the main concern people have now.

Most of the major automakers, from Audi to Volvo, are working on electric cars, and we'll see the first of them on the road at the end of this year. So electric cars are nothing new. We used two electric Ford Focuses to race around the track on my TV show. I've also got my own electric car. It's quite advanced, it goes 100 miles on a charge and it’s fully electric.

And it was built in 1909.

Let's step back in time a little bit to take a ride in my 1909 Baker Electric. You'll see just how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. I think you'll be surprised at some of the similarities.

The Baker is quite easy to drive. You have two pedals, two gauges and a tiller steerer. Turn the key and it starts. When you're ready to roll, all you do is push the lever and you move forward. Roll-up windows hadn’t been invented when my Baker was built; it has old railroad-style windows you pull up or slide down.

Although the Baker looks like a carriage – it basically is a carriage – it was quite advanced for its day. The fenders, for example, are leather. Leather was sort of the carbon fiber of that era because it was extremely lightweight. This car has electric lights inside and out, including the taillights. That was unusual back then – most cars still used gas lamps.

Nowadays, when most people think of electric cars, they think of glorified golfcarts used by seniors to nip down to the store (or they think of the Tesla Roadster and its six-figure pricetag). The Ford Focus EV is something else entirely. It's a real car that's fun to drive. The only difference between it and the gasoline-burning Ford Focus is the electric drivetrain.

Get in the Focus and and press the Start button and the first thing you notice is how quiet the car is. It's eerily quiet – so quiet, in fact, that all you hear is the tires screeching when you push the car hard. The Focus EV is a bit heavy in the back because you’re carrying 300 pounds of batteries. But people who have driven one really are amazed by how nice it is. You forget after a while that there's no gasoline.

I contend that the Focus EV is faster than a similar gasoline-burning car because of the low-end torque. Electric cars are quite snappy off the line. The only place an electric car really loses out to a gasoline car is in top speed. But the EV has the added benefit of being cleaner and quieter.

One reason EVs didn't catch on first time around, aside from the range issue, was the fact the starter motor hadn't been invented yet. When you wanted to start a gasoline car, you cranked. Hard. It was dangerous, too – you could break your thumb, you could break your arm and you had to be pretty strong to get the thing started. A lot of women couldn’t drive because they weren't strong enough to crank the motor and, besides, it wasn't considered ladylike back in the day.

So, women loved electric cars. Clara Ford, Henry Ford’s wife, drove a Baker because she couldn’t crank a Model T. Electrics got stuck with the "chick car" label, and everyone knows you can't sell "chick cars" to men. Although electrics like my Baker had a lot going for them, they didn't sell well enough to survive.

The Focus EV is a quick and nimble little car that's fun to drive.

Under the hood, the Focus and the Baker are remarkably similar. There's a motor, a controller and a big battery. The Baker's battery puts out 78 volts and the car is a 6-volt system. Like the Focus, you just push the pedal and go. The top speed is about 22 mph. That doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re driving a car that's as tall as it is long, you don’t want to go much faster than 22 miles an hour. And don't forget – there weren't a lot of paved roads back then.

The Baker was the perfect city car in a place like New York. You could just charge it up and go to Macy’s or Gimbels. Surprisingly, New York at the turn of the century had a number of charging stations every 10 blocks or so. Bakers also were used as taxicabs.

Behind the wheel, the driving experience in the Baker is remarkably similar to the experience in the Focus. There is a tremendous amount of torque in both cars. Although the Baker doesn’t go particularly fast, it will climb any hill with four people in it because electric motors make all their torque the moment you press the accelerator. Just push on the gear lever, push on the throttle – or the rheostat, I guess you’d call it – and you’ve got all the power you need.

I feel a connection between the two cars because the mode of transportation is exactly the same – there is no transmission, so when you put electricity through the motor it goes immediately to the rear wheels. The drivetrain or, more specifically, how the drivetrain works, is the same in both cars. Obviously the Focus’s motor is more efficient and your range is a lot better (Ford's shooting for 100 miles from a 23 kilowatt-hour battery), but the cars are, at heart, remarkably similar.

I think electric vehicles are the future. Hydrogen is very sexy, but we have the technology and infrastructure for electricity right now. So, for now, anyway, electrics are the way to go.

For the three or four readers who don't know, Jay Leno is the host of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and an avowed gearhead who owns about 200 vehicles.

Photos and video: Jay Leno

See Also:

Old EVs are a lot like new EVs under the skin – a motor, a controller and, of course, a big honkin' battery. Here's a look under the hood of the Baker.

And here's a look under the hood of the Focus.

The controls are pretty straightforward – accelerator, brake and gauges.

The dashboard in the Focus conveys a bit more information.

Ford plans to start offering the Focus EV in 2011.