As a history book on the development of EVs, I felt this was very complete. It even mentions fuel cells in the 1950’s. I think it would be a great read for anyone who is interested in how technologies develop, and would be especially valuable as an example to those who are unaware of the many decades of development behind today’s “ new” technologies. By creating awareness of how not only this, but many other technologies develop, it will provide insight into possible futures.How did I get to 5*?The history was fairly complete. (Not that I know it missed something, but i can’t be sure unless I know everything, which I don’t. I did show it to someone who worked with Toyota on the Prius concept, and they saw no obvious historical omissions).It’s not a coffee table book. I didn’t reduce points for that .And it’s not an exhaustive study. I didn’t reduce points for that. I doesn’t look in-depth at current “controversies” , like battery technologies, where the issues/trade offs are not only technical and ecological but also geopolitical and could consume and entire book. But it does mention them and an interested reader can then look elsewhere for pros and cons.Maybe I would have taken points off for the lack of some “ future” description or a nice concept car drawing. But I didn’t because while it might have been fun to see something, it would have just been pure speculation. The last few pages mention several important things ( regulatory and socio-economic trade offs as well as battery components like lithium and rare earths) that will influence the future. About the only think that the author explicitly predicted about the future was that it would take much longer than advocates hope. By the time you get to this, you should understand why and agree.Just be careful who you give this to, they may, like me, now want a $220,000 Sportech Roadster.