110 years after Ferdinand Porsche designed the world first-ever hybrid, the company he founded launched the Cayenne S Hybrid Yes, the technology was by now far more sophisticated, but the underlining principles remained broadly the same – a combustion engine that generated an electrical charge, albeit this time to power a battery rather than directly to the wheels. Fast forward another eight decades and, in 2010, the spiritual heir to the world’s first-ever hybrid car was launched in the shape of the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid. Some 30 years later, in 1931, Ferdinand founded the company that today still bears his name, a manufacturer for whom being a gamechanger would be a driving force. It may not have grabbed the consumer’s attention at the time, but with its innovative technology, the 25-year-old Ferdinand Porsche had announced himself as an exciting new talent in the world of automotive engineering. The engine powered a generator that sent a charge to the wheel hubs to drive them.įerdinand Porsche’s design for a ‘Drive Steering Wheel with Electric Motor’ for the Porsche-Lohner ‘Mixte’ (1902) A long, long wait… but worth itįor almost a century, the Lohner-Porsche remained the last Porsche-designed electrified car. Unlike the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, the Semper Vivus – which in 1901 launched as the production-ready Lohner-Porsche ‘Mixte’ – had a combustion engine, but that’s where Ferdinand’s genius kicked in. Hofwagenfabrik Ludwig Lohner & Co, Ferdinand designed what was the world’s first-ever hybrid car – the ‘Semper Vivus’. Ferdinand Porsche in 1898 – the year he introduced his first fully-electric car, the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton The first of many Porsche firstsĪnd just two years later, now working with the Vienna-based k.u.k. Ferdinand would name it the ‘P1’ – to signify that it was the first ever Porsche-designed car. Revealed to the public in 1898, the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton was powered by an octagonal electric motor that produced up to five PS, could hit a top speed of 35km/h and a range of around 80km. The first-ever Porsche-designed electric car could not have been more different to the Porsche Taycan of today. The Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus in 1900 – its name meant ‘forever alive’ in Latin And just a few years later, while working for the Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-AG Béla Egger company in Vienna, the young Ferdinand began designing vehicles with electric drives. In 1893, an 18-year-old Ferdinand showed the kind of technical and engineering nous that would be a feature of his career when he installed a lighting system in his parents’ house. In fact, Ferdinand Porsche designed the first-ever hybrid car, unveiled as a prototype in 1900 – 110 years before the launch of the Cayenne S Hybrid in 2010, the first electrified Porsche of the modern era.įerdinand Porsche had a long-standing fascination with electricity, going back to his childhood. But not only does it have a history that stretches back to the late 1800s, you may well be surprised to learn that the man who founded Porsche – and after whom the company is named – was a pioneer of battery-powered mobility. When it comes to cars, electrification feels very much a 21st Century phenomenon. Hybrid and all-electric cars may feel like a thoroughly modern mobility solution, but the man who founded Porsche was designing battery-powered cars at the turn of the 20th Century Electrification: it’s in the Porsche DNA Gamechanger: how Ferdinand Porsche designed the first-ever hybrid car Electromobility and Porsche goes back nearly 125 years
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