Do you suggest we ignore or include in this history the original contributions of the first electric cars from all the way back in the single digits of the 1900s?

There was a long time between those cars and the modern electric car where the only thing electric was "golf carts" (not general purpose cars), or homemade conversions. The EV1 was the first commercial car in the memory of most people alive today. The 1900s ones were fun/interesting historical things, but not practical.