An idealistic American inventor, Victor Wouk, developed a Hybrid electric and gasoline motorcar that consumed half the fuel that all similar cars of that time consumed. This was in the 1960's, a good thirty years before the launch of Toyota Prius which caught the fancy of energy anxious Americans. Even the most avid Hybrid car buff is unlikely to have heard of the inventor of the Hybrid car, who died at the age of 86 in May 2005. The USA should have in fact been the pioneer in Hybrid car technology. Prior to his death, Wouk claimed that the government program, which developed the Hybrid technology, in which he was involved was completely secret... http://news.carjunky.com/alternative_fuel_...r-cdfh083.shtml
thats nothing 1898 The German Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, at age 23, built his first car, the Lohner Electric Chaise. It was the world's first front-wheel-drive. Porsche's second car was a hybrid, using an internal combustion engine to spin a generator that provided power to electric motors located in the wheel hubs. On battery alone, the car could travel nearly forty miles. 1900 A Belgian carmaker, Pieper, introduced a 3-1/2 horsepower "voiturette" in which the small gasoline engine was mated to an electric motor under the seat. When the car was "cruising," its electric motor was in effect a generator, recharging the batteries. But when the car was climbing a grade, the electric motor, mounted coaxially with the gas engine, gave it a boost. The Pieper patents were used by a Belgium firm, Auto-Mixte, to build commercial vehicles from 1906 to 1912. i think i read somewhere that the early hybrids were harder to operate because they had lots of levers and stuff you had to manually control
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(9G-man @ Nov 12 2007, 07:34 AM) [snapback]538329[/snapback]</div> Absolutely fascinating! Thanks a bunch for that article. Wonder if we'll ever find out who Mr. X is (or was)...
