I read somewhere that many of the first cars were electric and they switched to gas later on. What would the world have been like if all the cars had stayed electric over time?
I'll start with, very untrue. Many early cars were electric, up until electric starters came in, and I think electric trucks remained in use for local deliveries up until WW2 (that might have been in only in England, but almost certainly not USA), though with diminishing market share. Steam was by far first, with electric and gasoline being developed roughly concurrently.
Anyway, I think electric would have done much better if it had come in about five years sooner, because then a strong support network could have been in place before gasoline cars spurred intercity road improvements. Even then, it would probably stay a niche vehicle, ruling for taxis and busses, but losing out to gasoline for the consumer market. Unless you can pull the price down for electric motors.
My favorite PoD is if generators had been figured out earlier. Evidently there is little to no difference between motors and generators, but it took about 60 years for anyone to realise it. Before 1860s, and there are no storage batteries (primary batteries are a different question), so any electricity has to be used as generated, but can still be useful for trains and stuff.
There was another point where a new type of battery was invented (by Edison, IIRC), that had greatly increased range at the expense of increased price and weight. Unfortunately, that was just after electrics had gone into decline, so nobody wanted to invest.
I read a really cool piece about changing the batteries on New York City taxis. They had equipment that could pull the entire battery tray and replace with a freshly charged set in something like 10 minutes. If you care I know I can find the book I read that in, and give you the real numbers. FWIW, those electric taxis were built in 1901 and ruled that market until 1911 with no further technical development.
Another place where electrics and especially hybrids were very popular was ambulances, where the smoothness was appreciated. I've seen some very cool pictures of fleets of Lohner-Porsches used as busses, fire-trucks, and postal delivery vehicles.
