dieseltaylor Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/automobiles/autospecial/24history.html?_r=1 Mr. Porsche I salute you : ) The Paris Exposition of 1900 featured the Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil, which would later become one of the first hybrid cars. It was designed two years earlier by a 23-year-old engineer, unknown at the time, named Ferdinand Porsche. Exposition records show that Porsche’s vehicle could travel 38 miles solely on electricity. How it came about was this: Jacob Lohner, a coach builder in Vienna in the late 1800s, was interested in the development of motorcars that incorporated coaches of the period. He asked the young Porsche, a graduate of the Vienna Technical College, to build a silent electric carriage. The gas-powered vehicles of the era were noisy, smelly, shaky and difficult to start. Porsche integrated battery-powered electric motors directly into the front-wheel hubs, producing one of the first front-wheel-drive cars. He later added an internal combustion gasoline engine to drive a generator, which charged the batteries. The Lohner-Porsche vehicle could reach a maximum speed of only about 35 miles an hour, but the proto-hybrid was born. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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