The History Of The Hybrid Vehicle
Posted by Owen Jones in Uncategorized, tags: alternative energy, America, autos, cars, family, hobbies, hybrid cars, hybrids, modern technology, motors, other, travel, trucks, Uncategorized, vehiclesJust where did a hybrid car get it’s start? Well, read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular for today’s car buyers, and there are many reasons why. But before you even think about choosing a hybrid car to buy, you might want to know a little bit about the history of the hybrid car first.
It is surprising, but hybrid cars were around even before gas-powered cars. In or about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist started making plans for a new type of vehicle. That vehicle or cart would be very simple, nothing complex. Dead simple was all he was interested in.
So it was that Ferdinand designed a car that would have four wheels and would run on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to complete his plan. He worked to perfect his dream car. But no one knows for certain if he ever finished it because there is no physical evidence that his concept ever came into reality.
Then in 1769, a man with the name of Nicholas Cugnot designed and developed a carriage that was powered by steam. This carriage really did work 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 go any significant distance.
The real break through in hybrid vehicle design finally came in 1839 when Robert Anderson developed an electrically powered car. It was the first of its breed and was built in Scotland.
This electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time. However, the only problem was that it was very difficult to recharge the car’s battery. Some pioneers came after Anderson, but they too had a hard time getting the battery recharged easily.
Eventually, in the year 1898, Porsche developed an electric and fuel combination combustion engine that was the first of its kind. The car was called the Lohner Electric Chaise and it could go for up to 40 miles just using its batteries.
Soon, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would turn into today’s hybrid car. In 1999, Honda made a leap into the US market. It brought out the Honda Insight, which was a lightweight two-door hybrid vehicle. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the roads today. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s nice to combine battery and liquid fuel to get them where they want to go. Hybrid cars began life simple, and they still are quite simple today.
Nowadays hybrid cars are becoming increasingly more popular as people are getting to understand them better. In the 21st century, hybrids saw a big boom in sales after the Toyota Prius came on the streets. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was marketed for 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.
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