Hybrid Cars: A Brief History
Believe it or not, Porsche is the first name in hybrid cars. It was Ferdinand Porsche who developed one of the first hybrid vehicles at the turn of the twentieth century. The four-wheel drive Mixte used a small gas-powered engine to run a generator that powered the electric hub motors on the carriage, as well as an added battery pack that could extend the range of the car by as much as 40 miles. The design is essentially the same in concept as the Chevrolet Volt, minus the plug-in. Porsche's hybrids reportedly made appearances at the famous Paris salon of the time and broke early European speed records.
In 1905, the first American patent for a hybrid car was filed by German-born Belgian gunmaker Henri Pieper. It included concepts like the parallel hybrid system employed today in the Toyota Prius and regenerative braking, which has become a staple of most hybrid vehicles now on the market.
To find out how hybrid cars work read - Hybrid Cars: How They Work
The earliest electric and hybrid model cars enjoyed a very brief golden age over the next eight years, but the invention of the electric starter for gasoline-powered cars and the Ford powerhouse would lead to a dormant period for electron-based auto technologies beginning around 1920 that lasted almost half a century.
In 1966, Congress began looking at electric vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution, and limited R & D began in earnest in a few corners of the auto industry, including General Motors. Interest in hybrids accelerated when the Arab oil embargo spiked oil prices in the 1970s. With assistance from the federal government, Toyota built its first hybrid during this period, the small Japanese-market Sport 800, which had its engine and transmission replaced by a gas turbine and an electric motor.
Lower gas prices led to a lull in hybrid development during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the U.S. government launched new initiatives to develop better batteries for vehicles. Plus, the Clinton Administration's Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) – a program where the governement worked with the auto industry to develop cars capable of 80 miles per gallon. PNGV resulted in three new hybrid prototypes; the GM Precept delivered up to 80 mpg, the Ford Prodigy up to 72 mpg and the Chrysler ESX-3 an impressive 72 mpg.
GM Precept / Ford Prodigy / Chrysler ESX-3
Toyota was excluded from the PNGV, but the company undertook a secret project to improve fuel efficiency at the same time. The Toyota Prius was released to the Japanese market four years later, in 1997. Audi followed suit in Europe that same year, and Honda brought the first hybrid to North America, the Insight, in 1999. It was followed a year later by the four-door Toyoto Prius. The Ford Escape became both the first American-made and first SUV hybrid in 2004.
1999 Honda Insight