The History of the Hybrid Car

Demand for a car that would be economical to run and one that would not pollute the atmosphere has resulted in the development of the Hybrid car. Vast strides made in the recent past in gasoline engine technology, has made the Hybrid car a popular reality.

A [tag]Hybrid car[/tag] is a vehicle that uses two power sources, a rechargeable energy storage system and a fueled power source. The Hybrid car uses less fuel and emits much less pollutants.

It was in 1899 that Ferdinand Porsche developed the first working Hybrid electric vehicle followed by a number of others who innovated on the original invention. While some form or the other of the Hybrid vehicle has been in continuous production, no major manufacturer of automobiles took it up for bulk production and marketing, till late in the twentieth century. The technology was used primarily for use in diesel-electric submarines during that period.

The diesel-electric submarine works more or less in the same way as a modern Hybrid car does. The main difference is in the need for conserving oxygen in the former rather than any need for economy of fuel consumption. Subsequently, submarines have been evolving and have even begun to use nuclear power.

Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, two Hybrid cars were launched successfully in the 1990’s. These two pioneers of the Hybrid car concept have changed the perception of the market about automobiles.

An idealistic American inventor, Victor Wouk, developed a Hybrid electric and gasoline motorcar that consumed half the fuel that all similar cars of that time consumed. This was in the 1960’s, a good thirty years before the launch of Toyota Prius which caught the fancy of energy anxious Americans.

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