Early electric tricycle. 19th-century artwork of the electric tricycle developed in 1881 by English physicist and electrical engineeer William Edward Ayrton (1847-1908) and Irish engineer John Perry (1850-1920). Both were Fellows of the Royal Society and worked together on numerous projects. This was one of the first electric vehicles, and the first electric wheelchair. It was powered with ten lead batteries, and had a range of 16 to 40 kilometres, and a maximum speed of just over 14 kilometres per hour.