Spare gas cans can get you hundreds of miles. When I was growing up this was super common for long road trips just because gas stations usually closed at night and there weren’t credit card readers for 24 hour pumps.
Built it and it will come doesn’t always work for the early adopters, early investment in a technology can be risky it might take longer than expected or some other tech might replace the current front runner.
Gasoline powered cars weren’t the only tech in early 1900s either, steam powered cars were being as late as 1930s.
The diesel and petrol engines were competing too, very different kinds of engines and fuels