Electric battery common fuels such as gasoline. In automobiles, this is somewhat offset by the higher efficiency of electric motors in converting chemical energy to mechanical work, compared to combustion engines. The usage of "battery" to describe a group of electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin, who in 1748 described multiple Leyden jars by analogy to a battery of cannon (Benjamin Franklin borrowed the term "battery" from the military, which refers to weapons functioning together). Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built and described the first electrochemical battery, the voltaic pile, in 1800. This was a stack of copper and zinc plates, separated by
Battery electric vehicle all-electric school bus was delivered to the Kings Canyon Unified School District in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The bus was one of four the district ordered. This battery electric school bus, which has 4 sodium nickel batteries, is the first modern electric school bus approved for student transportation by any state. In 2016, including the light heavy-duty vehicles, there were roughly 1.5 million heavy-duty vehicles in California. The same technology is used to power the Mountain View Community Shuttles. This technology was supported by the California Energy Commission, and the shuttle program is being supported by Google. Thunder Sky (based