Ferdinand Porsche and the Early Hybrids

Well, thanks to the high cost of gasoline, Americans are finally talking about alternatives to being at the mercy of foreign oil. The most promising approach seems to be the hybrid gas/electric. With Toyota selling every Prius it can build, Ford coming out with the Escape hybrid SUV, and GM also planning gas/electric vehicles, it appears as if we are finally on our way to cutting down on our dependence upon the oil barons and sheiks. "Necessity is the mother of invention."

Lots of people are amazed at how these hybrid cars and new light trucks can get as much as 60 miles to a gallon of gasoline. Few know, however that the first gas/electric hybrids were built over 100 years ago by none other than the father of the VW Beetle and the Porsche, Ferdinand Porsche. Back then, the gas powered internal combustion engine was just one of many ways to power a motor wagon.

Nicolas Cugnot of France had invented the first self-propelled road vehicle back in 1769. It was powered by steam. Robert Anderson of Scotland built the first electric carriage in 1832.

So, by the turn of the century, competition for shares of the new market in horseless carriages was wide open with small companies popping up all over the western world. We even had a car company here in Massachusetts, the Stanley Steamer Company, based in my home town of Newton.

So it was that in 1898 Porsche, whose first love was electricity, was hired by Jakob Lohner, a coachbuilder to the aristocracy of Vienna who was fascinated with the potential for an electrically powered vehicle. Although still just a teenager, Porsche came up with a front wheel drive electric car that was a model of simplicity... no transmission, gears or drive-shaft, just an electric motor at each front wheel. His revolutionary design, the Lohner Electric Chaise, even won an award at the 1900 Paris exposition and went on to set a speed record over the famous Semmering Highway in Austria.

Because batteries were very heavy, Porsche gave the problem some thought and out of necessity, came up with his next invention... the gas/electric hybrid! He called it the "Mixt." The Mixt used a small gas powered engine to turn a generator which drove the motors in the wheels and re-charged smaller, reserve batteries. It was such as success that the technology incorporated into the fire fighting equipment of both Vienna and London!

So, someday, when you get behind the wheel of your first hybrid vehicle and cruise past the gas pumps without slowing down, give a thought to the father of that hot Porsche 911 that just whipped by. He got the hybrid wheels turning over 100 years ago!

Thanks for your interest in WheelsTV. We have some exciting news coming up so stay tuned.

Thanks, and please drive safely,

Jim Barisano