The History Of The Hybrid Vehicle

Just where did a hybrid car get it’s start? Read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular to modern car buyers and there are many reasons why that should be. But before you even think about choosing a hybrid car to purchase, you might want to know a little bit about the history of the hybrid first.

Surprisingly, hybrid cars were around even before gas-powered cars. Back in about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist began plans for a certain type of vehicle. That vehicle would be very simple, nothing complex, or intricate. Simple was all he wanted.

So it was that Ferdinand planned out a car that would have four wheels and would run on steam. It took about fifteen years of sweat and toil for Ferdinand to go through with his plan. He worked|laboured to perfect his dream vehicle. But no one knows for certain if he ever finished it because there is no evidence that his concept ever passed into existence.

Then in 1769, a man with the name of Nicholas Cugnot designed and developed a carriage that was driven by steam. This vehicle really did go and it went at six miles per hour. This project was great, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed to make the car to travel any significant distance.

The real break through in hybrid car design finally came in 1839 when Robert Anderson developed an electrically powered car. It was the first of its kind and was built in Scotland.

This type of electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time. But, the only problem was that it was very hard to recharge the car’s battery. Some pioneers did come after Anderson, but they had the same problem of getting the battery recharged after a few miles.

Then there was another outstanding break-through, in the year 1898, Porsche brought out an electric and fuel combo combustion engine that was the first of its type. The vehicle was called the Lohner Electric Chaise and it could travel for up to 40 miles using only its batteries.

Within a short space of time, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would become today’s hybrid car. In 1999, Honda made a leap into the US market. It came out with the Honda Insight, which was a lightweight two-door hybrid. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the market these days. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s nice to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they need to go. Hybrid cars started out simple, and they are still quite simple today.

Now hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular as people understand them more. Hybrid cars in the 21st century saw a boom in sales when the Toyota Prius came out on the market. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was sold in America.

Then, Ford’s Escape hybrid became the very first SUV hybrid ever made. So there, you have it, the history of the hybrid, today’s modern car.