汽 is transparent chemistry: water 氵 + air 气 = steam. A character invented for the industrial age, when boiling water started moving machines.
汽 powers 汽车 (car — 'steam carriage', named when engines steamed) and 汽水 (soda — 'steam water', bubbles as tamed steam). The steam is fossil now — cars burn gasoline (汽油) and increasingly electrons — but the character preserves the era when water-turned-air pushed pistons and astonished the world. 汽车站 (bus station) still runs on the old word.
Water 氵 rising as air 气 — STEAM, the ghost in the first machines.
电动汽车 — 'electric steam carriage' — is what Chinese calls a Tesla. Three energy eras in one word.