[Guest]

Hi folks,
Many of you may know that the history of electric vehicles is quite rich. Early electric vehicles competed with early ICE vehicles and captured the early speed records. The electric vehicle Jamais Contente was the first auto to reach 100 km/hr, in April 1899 traveling at 105.8 km/h to shatter the speed record by 13 km/h.
<http://eng-sun3.murdoch.edu.au/~pcalais/DrivSol.html>

What I did not appreciate was that electric-gas hybrid vehicles also go back to about 1900. One of Ferdinand Porsche’s early efforts was a collaboration with Jacob Lohner that produced the world’s first hybrid gas-electric vehicles that looked something like this.
(Click on lohner-porsche at left).
<http://homepage.mac.com/retrofuturist/electromobile/personaltransports-index.html>
Evidently, the ICE was a mod of the EV where the ICE replaced the 80 V battery.
<http://www.telusplanet.net/public/jwberger/autos/porsche/p1.html>
I do not quite appreciate the advantages of such an arrangement (range, I suppose) and I cannot tell if it was produced in appreciable numbers.

However, the hybrid experience probably led Porsche to develop the hybrid gas-electric Landwehr train in 1912. This train was designed to carry the heaviest loads and to run on roads or rails with steel disks attached to the solid rubber tires for rail use. It had a 100hp ICE coupled to a 70 kW dynamo with electric motors in each car’s second axle.
<http://www.rockcrawler.com/features/newsshorts/01december/cayenne.asp>

Others may have a more extensive appreciation of hybrid history and can supplement the sketchy snippets here.

The Prius is more than a car,
nathan

 

[Guest]

Hi folks,
Today’s New York Times has a print-only advertising section for the New York Auto Show that had a page devoted to hybrids, specifically their history. They focus on Porsche’s hybrid, the Mixte, and have a picture of the 1902 model. Porsche invented and patented the hybrid car in 1897 at the age of 22. It was the first all-wheel drive vehicle. It had an electric motor on each wheel with the ICE running at constant speed. It had four-wheel brakes as the motors doubled as electrostatic brakes. The car was produced by Mercedes under license. Celebrities like Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand of WWI fame drove the Mercedes-Mixte. The 1905 model reached 87 mph. Porsche also designed the hybrid Landwehr train cited upthread. In WWII, Porsche used the hybrid Mixte system in the German Tiger tank, which was the most formidable tank at the time. He also designed the ten-wheel drive hybrid C-Zug WWI gun.
Being an advertisement the article had no by-line, but the author does reference one book. Barker and Harding’s book, Automobile Design: Great Designers and Their Work.
Prius: More than a Car
nathan

 

[Guest]

<http://www.ostrichbay.com/raft/past/april2000/woods.htm>

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