Why 2017 will go down as the beginning of the end of the internal combustion engine



The Chevrolet Bolt EV is an electric vehicle that boasts a range of up to 238 per full charge. It releases early 2017. (Jhaan Elker, Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

By Peter Holley October 11Loaded in 1.8 seconds

Electric vehicles no longer seem like a futuristic fever dream, but they remain a rarity on most American city streets, accounting for less than 1 percent of the nation’s auto sales, according to the automotive website Edmunds.com.

Yet, when future auto historians look back, they may pinpoint 2017 as the year electric vehicles went from a promising progressive fad to an industry-wide inevitability.