Just where did a hybrid car get it’s start? Read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular for today’s car buyers and there are many reasons why that should be. But before you even think about choosing a hybrid vehicle to buy, 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 Ferdinand designed a car that would have four wheels and would run only on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to go through with his plan. He laboured to perfect his dream car. But no one knows if he ever finished because there is no evidence that his concept ever came into existence.
Then in 1769, a man by the name of Nicholas Cugnot developed a carriage that was driven by steam. This carriage did in fact work, and it could go at six miles per hour. This project was great, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed that would allow 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 vehicle. It was the first of its kind and was built in Scotland.
This model 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 did come after Anderson, but they had the same problem of 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 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 today. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s cool to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they need to go. Hybrid cars began life 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.
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