The birth of the Hybrid

[What's Burning?]

I was watching a collector car program and they had an episode on the Porsche Museum. Interesting bit of info, the first car that Ferdinand Porsche ever built was an all wheel drive all electric with engine braking ERS.

Pretty damned forward thinking for 1898 and even more impressive is that he had followed that up with a hybrid version in 1901 with smaller batteries and a small combustion engine running an electric generator. The first of it's kind. In 1901 Enzo Ferrari was still crapping in his diapers.

[CookinFlat6]

Reminds me of the Tesla story, its amazing how these engineering geniuses have the vision that takes everyone else decades to get round to.
Although its easy to see why the petrol engine was preferred over electric at the start of powered motors. Everyone would have thought petrol was the environmentally friendly fuel compared to horses and their tendency to leave cities literally covered in sh!t.