...in 1875!
By Justin Hyde

Among his many other laurels, Ferdinand Porsche can lay claim to building the first hybrid gasoline-electric car — in 1900. By that time, Porsche had been working as an engineer for Jacob Lohner & Co. in Vienna for three years, and had already amazed the continent with his first car, the Lohner-Porsche, which was powered by electric motors mounted on the front wheel hubs. The Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus hybrid added two small gasoline engines which recharged its electric motors, the same idea that Lohner would make popular for trains and other heavy vehicles, and which GM would resurrect for the Chevy Volt more than a century later. It would be some three decades after he began his career before Porsche would found his eponymous automotive consulting firm. A couple of years ago, Porsche recreated the Semper Vivus, to show how its founder's ideas have held up:

 

Remembering Dr. Porsche's Birthday today......







Today we honor a great man which without him, we would have no hobby, to the man who's dream was fulfilled just shortly before his death, seeing upon the German Autobahn scores of new little "beetle like" cars called the "Volkswagen" and also to see the sports car that he and his son versioned for the future a car that would also carry his name.....
Design engineer Professor Dr. Ing. h.c. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.
(Born in Maffersdorf (now Vratislavice/Czech Republic) on 3rd September 1875 and he died in Stuttgart on January 31, 1951 R.I.P.) aged 75 years