The 1900 Lohner Porsche Semper Vivus was the world's first gas-electric hybrid, with two 3.5hp electric hub motors. A later version had 4 hub motors, making it the first 4-wheel drive car. The 80 volt bank of 44 batteries weighed in at 1800kg and could not be charged from an external source (as in today's plug-in hybrids) but instead was charged with a rear mounted internal combustion engine.
In 1898 Ferdinand Porsche (only 18 yo at the time) constructed an efficient electrical motor small enough to fit inside a wheel, and two years later built the Semper Vivus with Austrian carriage builder Ludwig Lohner & Co.
Porsche Semper Vivus Hybrid - CarSession.com
Lohner Porsche Semper Vivus
Porsche Semper Vivus - Interia.pl
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e·co·mod·ding: the art of turning vehicles into what they should be
What matters is
where you're going, not
how fast.
"... we humans tend to screw up everything that's good enough as it is...or everything that we're attracted to, we love to go and defile it." - Chris Cornell
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