Porsche 4WD hybrid

two wheels good

I came across this book in my local library: "Porsche - The Engineering Story: Jeff Daniels" Very interesting. Here's an nugget in the first chapter.

In 1900 Ferdinand Porsche produced the Lohner electric car, with a 2kw motor in both front hubs - "System Lohner-Porsche". "This allowed him to do away with problematic transmissions. Electric traction was more familiar than the new-fangled internal combustion engine" The car set national speed records.

Then in 1904 he "extended his hub-motor principle to all four wheels. He also added a petrol motor-generator to create not only the world's first 4WD car but also the first petrol-electric hybrid - principles decades ahead of their time".

In 1900 F.P. was only 25 years old! BTW He was born in Vratislavice, part of Czech Republic these days.

unkel

But the people in the pub say Toyota invented the hybrid car

I posted a picture of the 1899 Lohner Porsche a few years ago:



Spot the electro motors

Kevin_Herron

Very interesting car.
There was one on this years London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
It was great to hear it running!

Heres a video of it I found on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zGc0ZA1kKo

bijapos

The car in that video is driven by Ernst Piech, brother of Ferdinand Piech (VW) and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the car is registered in Salzburg, one of the bastions of the extended Porsche family. Interestingly enough he married the daughter of Heinrich Nordhoff the first CEO of VW, and the man that made it into what it is today.

The car was

two wheels good wrote: »

I came across this book in my local library: "Porsche - The Engineering Story: Jeff Daniels" Very interesting. Here's an nugget in the first chapter.

Theres a bit more on the car, the Lohner Porsche Semper Vivus here and here. Sadly Porsches own site had very little on the car.

And from another site:

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.

unkel wrote: »

But the people in the pub say Toyota invented the hybrid car

I posted a picture of the 1899 Lohner Porsche a few years ago:



Spot the electro motors

Heres a photo of a newly built version of that car, built from plans a couple of years ago, and a video showing some of the detail that goes in to making one of these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjZ0VTDZJ_Q

two wheels good

unkel wrote: »

But the people in the pub say Toyota invented the hybrid car

Ha! But who who killed the electric car? I really must watch that documentary some time.

Thanks - very interesting. That action photo should be in the book. The 2WD model in the book seems to show the battery-only model. If I can find my camera I'll post a photo.
Meantime I'll be drooling over 356s, 911s and 914s - and skipping over any photos of a whaletail.

two wheels good

Upper photo:
2WD, hub motors, battery powered. Looking sleeker without the breeze-block rad up front.

Lower photo:
4WD hub motors. No mention in the caption of a petrol motor for the generator.

No mention of range either unfortunately.