Custom faux-tique electric tram aims to replace New York's horses over the neigh-sayers

For the record, it's the year 2014. I mention that in case someone reading this story about a push to replace horses with motorized carriages thinks they've stumbled onto some archival piece by accident. It's been more than 100 years since the first vehicles began to trundle around Manhattan, but the last remaining vestiges of horse-powered transport in the city could be nigh — if the backers of a massive electric wagon get their way.

Unveiled at the New York auto show today, the Horseless eCarriage was designed and built by restorer Jason Wenig, on commission from New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, Safe Streets — a coalition which wants the city to outlaw the 68 horse-drawn carriages currently licensed to give tours of Central Park. Among the group's chief backers: newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio.