History of the Hybrid Car

In this article I will give you the history of the hybrid car. First, I talk about steam power. Second, I discuss electric power for hybrid vehicles. Third, I discuss the Porsche hybrid. Fourth, I discuss mass production. And lastly, I discuss hybrid cars and hybrid trucks in relation to gasoline powered cars.

It’s pretty interesting how people are becoming more aware of their environment nowadays. This can be seen on the increasing amount of environment friendly products in the market these days. Additionally, they’ve become aware of the various factors that contribute to the threatening pollution in the environment. Hence, companies started developing less toxic emitting products that also do well to the environment and one of the most prominent of this kind would be hybrid cars. As starter, here’s the history of the hybrid car.

It’s All About Steam

The concept of creating environment friendly or alternatively powered vehicles started with the idea of vehicles running with the use of steam. Between 1665 to1885 a couple of ideas regarding steam powered vehicles were noted. First off would be astronomer and Flemish Jesuit priest Ferdinand Verbiest, who had plans for a small four-wheeled unmanned steam car. Next would be Nicholas Cugnot who built a carriage powered by steam that was able to run for 6 miles/hour. Lastly would be Goldsworthy Gurney who was able to create a steam car that could run an 85 mile journey in just 10 hours.

Then Came Electricity

It was also quite early when people started conceptualizing and later on creating electricity powered cars. It was in 1839 when Scotsman Robert Anderson first created an electrically powered vehicle. Then, significant development was noted during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In fact, it was during this time when a lot of companies started making use of electricity to power their vehicles.

Electric Cabs

Additionally electrically powered cabs became prominent during the 1897, because this is when the London Electric Cab Company started their regular service by the use of cars which were made by Walter Bersey. It was called the Bersey Cab. This cab uses a 40-cell battery with a 3 HP electric motor. People were able to drive it 50 miles in between charges.

The First Porsche Hybrid

It was during 1898 when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was able to build his very first car, which was called Lohner Electric Chaise. This car was also 1st front-wheel-drive. Then, the second car that he made was a hybrid. Here, he used an internal combustion engine so that the car’s generator would spin. In effect, it produced power to be used by electric motors, which could be found on the wheel hubs. Just using batteries, the car was able to travel about 40 miles.

Going Large Scale

In the past, manufacturers weren’t really able to create as much cars as they wanted. This is because they weren’t equipped with the right tools and machines to do so. However, as technology developed, car companies were able to make big batches of production.

In fact, by 1900, American car companies were able to create made 936 gasoline, 1,575 electric 1,681 steam car. People were also becoming more open with the use of electric cars. This can be seen on a poll which was conducted during the 1st National Automobile Show, where patrons actually favored electric cars for their 1st choice, while steam cars placed second on a very close fight.

During the first couple of years in the 20th century, thousands of hybrid and electric cars were actually created. However, when Henry Ford’s car line arrived along with the start of self-starting gas engines, this signalled the rapid decline of hybrid cars during 1920.

Fuelled Cars Taking The Limelight

When fuelled cars were introduced, this became a very significant period of time for hybrid cars. Simply because people started opting for gasoline fuelled cars than those that were hybrids. Additionally, car manufacturing companies, like Ford also created lines of gas fuelled automobiles that were quite cheap to buy. Since these cars were cheap, people started buying the cheap gas cars than those more expensive hybrid cars.

Hence, gas fuelled cars took the limelight for quite some time. In fact, up to now, gas fuelled vehicles are still on the spot light.

However, hybrid cars were still somewhere in the backdrop. Sadly, only those that were creating cars for themselves or those that stayed in rural areas and had the means to create their own cars still hold on to this kind of vehicle.

Nevertheless, people have become aware of the benefits of hybrids nowadays. Hence, they are coming back into the picture. Ironically, most people think that such cars were only invented recently. However the colourful history of the hybrid car simply shows that it started quite early and was only overshadowed by gas fuelled cars due to convenience and money matters.