Hybrids: one thinks it’s the ultimate solution, while the other is an intermediate solution that combines the disadvantages of fuel and EV cars. It was without a doubt the Toyota Prius that drove the success of hybrids, but the Prius was not the first hybrid. It appeared about 100 years earlier.
That first hybrid was the Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus, which later dried up in the Lohner Porsche “Mixte”. The name “Porsche” was indeed that of Ferdinand, although the brand with the well-known weapon would have to wait for many decades.
Porsche was reportedly keenly interested in electrical engineering right from the start, joining Lohner & Co., a coach (builder) builder from Vienna, in the latter years of the 19th century. Lohner increasingly focused on making electrically powered vehicles, which was still relatively popular in the early years of the automobile as one of the possible forms of drive.
At Lohner, Porsche was therefore primarily involved in fully electric vehicles. He developed something that already sounds so modern: the electric motor placed in the wheel. Today, the internet is full of ambitious sports car, supercar and hypercar builders who provide each wheel with an electric motor, but Porsche already did that in 1900.
In that year, the first Lohner Porsche was presented at the Paris Expo, where the Eiffel Tower had just completed its first decade. With 2.5 horsepower on two of the four wheels, recognizable by the large “cookie jar” in the driven units, that car had to be able to reach 37 km / h.
What followed, however, was even more interesting. In an attempt to solve the biggest problem of the EV (then and now, incidentally), namely the driving range, Porsche decided to combine its innovative electric drive concept with a combustion engine. In the Lohner Porsche “Semper Vivus”, the electric motors were powered not by a battery pack, but by an internal combustion engine. This created a real series hybrid, like a Fisker Karma or BMW i3 with Range Extender.
The Semper-Vive, later Lohner-Porsche Mixte, has never been a great success, although this applies to almost every car from 120 years ago. At the request of a customer, a four-wheel drive version has even been built, a car with an electric motor per wheel that seems even more reflective of what many manufacturers are currently working on. The problems that plug-in hybrids, in particular, are now struggling with also ended the innovative antique Porsche. The car was too heavy, very complex and very expensive, so that a simpler drivetrain with only an internal combustion engine turned out to be a better option. At least for the next century.