 |
Hybrid Car InventionDr Ferdinand Porsche was in fact an employee of Jacob Lohner, before starting on his own later. The first hybrid car, a Lohner-Porsche, as a result of this co-operation, was released in 1902, but due to lack of demand, the whole company ceased operations in 1906, eight short years after the start of the company. The working engineer behind the first hybrid was Porsche, working for Lohner, developeding a drive system based on fitting an electric motor to each front wheel without transmissions. The 1902 version of the engine used petrol engine driving a generator to produce the electricity to drive the electric motors. The hybrid cars quickly became a success. Thousands of hybrid cars were in fact produced in the years between 1902 and 1920, by companies such as Krieger, Lohner-Porsche, and Auto-Mixte. The next wave of commercial success for hybrid vehicles came in 1997, when Toyota's Hybrid Drive Engine was released with the launch of Toyota Prius in Japan.
|