When Was the First Hybrid Car Developed?
There are more hybrid electric vehicles on the market today than ever before. Hybrids are lauded as a major step toward energy independence and environmentally safe forms of personal transportation. However, the history of hybrid electric vehicles is nothing new, dating back to the earliest days of automobile manufacturing.
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Hybrid Technology Basics
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A hybrid electric vehicle can be defined most broadly as any vehicle that uses both an internal combustion engine as well as an electric motor to provide its propulsion. This excludes cars that use a batters to power auxiliary electrical systems but rely solely on their gasoline or diesel engine for propulsion. Likewise, it excludes some electric cars that contain a small gasoline engine which is used to replenish the battery but not to actually drive the car directly.
Modern hybrid cars use a computer controlled system to select between the two sources of power based on driving conditions and how much power is needed. The car's battery is charged whenever there is an excess of power, such as when driving downhill, braking, or coasting to a stop. Some hybrid electric vehicles still use a traditional 12-volt battery (called the auxiliary battery) to power other electrical systems such as headlights, spark plugs, and the radio.
The First Hybrid
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The very first hybrid electric vehicle was actually one of the first cars designed by Austrian car mogul Ferdinand Porsche. Known as the Mixte, this hybrid was produced between 1901 and 1905. It was configured as what is known as a "series hybrid" meaning that the electric motors (one in each wheel hub) were all powered by a gasoline engine (via an electric generator) that could be shut off when the motors were fully charged.
The Mixte was popular for its revolutionary powertrain and actually competed in and won several road races. It was available as both a two- and four-seater and featured two- or all-wheel drive. Ultimately the Mixte proved too unwieldy to produce in large numbers, mostly due to its batteries which weighed just under two tons. Advances in the gasoline combustion engine led Porsche and others to abandon hybrid vehicles.
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Other Early Hybrids
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Between 1915 and 1918, the Woods Motor Vehicle Company of Chicago, Illinois produced a hybrid electric car known appropriately as the Dual Power. This hybrid featured a central electric motor as well as a four-cylinder gasoline engine. The Dual Power ran on electricity at speeds below 15mph with the gasoline engine available between 15mph and the car's top speed of around 30mph.
Another important car in the development of the modern hybrid, although not a hybrid itself, was an unnamed model built by Erich Gaichen in Germany in the early-1930s. Gaichen's car was fully electric with supplemental power coming from compressed air that was carried on board. What made this model so important was the fact that the batteries were charged as the car rolled downhill, just as modern hybrids store energy that would otherwise be wasted.
The Modern Hybrid Arrives
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The modern hybrid was developed throughout the later part of the twentieth century. One of the leading figures in its development was American engineer Victor Wouk. In his experiments, Wouk incorporated electric motors into existing cars with conventional gasoline engines. Wouk, who became known as "The Godfather of the Hybrid" inspired others, including David Arthurs who brought the idea of a regenerative braking system (like that used by Gaichen in the '30s) to Wouk's modern engine configurations. Still, this sort of work remained experimental and the automobile industry took a limited interest in new replacement technology for its successful and economically efficient model of producing and fueling cars based on gasoline or diesel fuel.
Hybrids Today
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In 1989, the Audi 100 Avant Duo became the first true modern production hybrid car. It included a battery pack placed in the trunk that powered the rear wheels and a standard gasoline engine under the hood to power the front wheels. The Audi 100 Avant Duo included a driver control system for manual selection of either mode of power.
General Motors experimented notoriously with the EV1 fully electric car in the 1990s, but it wasn't until the late-'90s that hybrid cars became common. The Toyota Prius (1997) and Honda Insight (1999) were the two models that brought hybrid technology to the attention of most drivers. Both cars remain in production today. American automakers were quick to adapt current models to use hybrid technology, producing new hybrid versions of sedans, coupes, pick-up trucks, and SUVs throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century.
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- Photo Credit Ainali, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solon-Hybrid_car.jpg
