The world’s first hybrid was a Porsche?

Did you know that the world’s first hybrid was actually designed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1901? I was amazed when I read about this recently. Apparently, Ferdinand Porsche, the legendary name behind the Porsche automobile company had created an hybrid with in-wheel electric motors and an onboard gasoline engine that was used to recharge the batteries for the electric motors. In the 1900’s, gasoline was dirt cheap and so there was no economic value to having electric cars. Seeing that there would be no demand for this type of vehicle, Porsche scrapped the development of the hybrid. Boy, how times have changed! A mere 100 years later, gasoline prices continue to skyrocket and automobile manufacturers are vying to create alternative fuel cars. Could it be possible that we would be completely independent of oil had these companies continued their research over the past 100 years?

The main difference between the Porsche hybrid and modern day hybrids is that the 100-year old hybrid was a serial hybrid - meaning that only the electric motors were used to power the wheels. Most hybrids of today such as the Prius are parallel hybrids, they use both, the gasoline engine as well as the electric motor to power the wheels. GM’s Volt is an exception by using a serial hybrid design.

100 years after it abandoned it’s hybrid venture, Porsche is working on introducing the popular Cayenne as a hybrid model.