Ferdinand Porsche’s 1901 ‘Semper Vivus,’ the world’s first hybrid automobile. Photos courtesy Porsche AG.
Ask a casual observer to name the first hybrid automobile, and the responses are likely to be either the Toyota Prius (initially launched in Japan in 1997) or the Honda Insight (launched globally by late 1999, making it the first hybrid available in North America). Get more specific and ask them to name the first series hybrid (which derives its primary propulsion from electric motors driven by batteries and a gasoline-powered generator), and most will say the Chevrolet Volt or even the Fisker Karma. Both answers are incorrect, as the first series hybrid automobile was built by Porsche, constructed in Germany in 1901.
To be entirely correct, the vehicle was a Lohner-Porsche, as Ferdinand Porsche had joined Vienna-based carriage builder Jacob Lohner and Company in 1898. The combination of Porsche’s engineering skills and Lohner’s marketing prowess paid dividends almost instantly; just two years after joining the firm, Porsche’s electric-powered Lohner-Porsche impressed attendees of the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. While electric cars were nothing entirely new, the Lohner-Porsche design used the front wheel hubs as components of the electric motors.
In 2007, the Porsche Museum began a three-year project to recreate the Semper Vivus; the above is the finished result.
The argument against electric power in Europe at the turn of the century was the same as it is in North America today: Limited range and a lack of charging infrastructure make electric vehicles impractical for many potential buyers. Then, as now, electric cars were primarily purchased by urban dwellers of means, who rarely drove beyond the limited battery range and had the capability of recharging batteries at home. To get around this problem, Porsche had a brilliant idea: What if the recharging station was portable, built into the car itself and powered by readily available gasoline?
In 1900, Porsche set to work on a car that used its gasoline engine (or engines) not to power the drive wheels, but rather to spin a generator and create electricity. This electricity could then be used to power the hub-mounted motors, with any unneeded current going to recharge the onboard batteries. Such a vehicle would be an electric car (capable of being run on batteries alone, at least for limited distances), yet it would have a virtually limitless range as long as fuel was in the tank.
Working with the chassis of an electric car that Porsche had campaigned at the Semmering-Bergrennen race, Porsche took a pair of on-hand single-cylinder De Dion-Bouton engines, each producing 2.5 horsepower, and mounted them behind the driver’s bench seat. Each engine served two functions: spin a generator, providing power to the wheel hub motors and batteries, and drive a water pump to provide coolant to the engines. Propulsion came exclusively from the hub-mounted electric motors, and no mechanical connection whatsoever existed between the engines and the front drive wheels. The very first series hybrid automobile had been created, and Porsche named his creation Semper Vivus, Latin for “always alive.”
While the Lohner-Porsche electric car used a total of 74 battery cells in its “accumulator,” Porsche was concerned about the growing weight of the Semper Vivus, which added two engines, two generators, a fuel tank and a liquid cooling system. To reduce weight, the number of batteries in the car’s accumulator was reduced to 44, bringing the car’s weight to within 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of the all-electric racing version. Still, the large hub motors were extremely heavy, and the Semper Vivus tipped the scales at some 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds), hefty for a car that lacked rear suspension, doors, windows or even a roof.
The modern Semper Vivus is a fully-functional recreation.
Porsche’s innovative design allowed the electric circuit from the Semper Vivus’s generators to be reversed; tapping power from the onboard storage batteries, the generators could be used to provide an electric start for the car’s gasoline engines. Once running, each engine and generator was capable of producing 90 volts and 20 amperes, which was delivered to the wheel-hub motors; any electricity not drawn by the motors went to the accumulator. When the motors were drawing the full amount of current from the generators but more power was needed, supplemental electricity was provided by the cells of the accumulator.
First displayed at the 1901 Paris Motor Show, the Semper Vivus must have seemed like something straight out of a science fiction novel. As innovative as it was, the design held numerous inherent drawbacks; if the punishing ride delivered by the solid, unsprung rear axle wasn’t a deal-breaker, the complexity of its series hybrid drivetrain (complete with two engines and two generators) would have been sufficient to deter the majority of potential buyers.
By the 1901 Paris Motor Show, however, Porsche had already put the Semper Vivus behind him. Accepting the fact that it wasn’t a commercially viable product, the engineer was already hard at work on an improved version. Gone were the twin De Dion-Bouton engines and dual generators, replaced by a single 5.5-liter Austrian Daimler engine, good for 25 horsepower, mounted in front of the car. The large single generator was positioned beneath the driver’s bench seat, spun by a driveshaft coming off the engine. Under normal operation, the engine (and thus, the generator) was run at a constant speed, and supplemental power for the hub-mounted motors (still driving the front wheels) could again be pulled from the batteries. Like the Semper Vivus, the generator could provide an electric start for the gasoline engine. This version, which would be produced commercially, was called the Lohner-Porsche Mixte.
Ferdinand Porsche at the wheel of a 1903 Lohner-Porsche Mixte.
Production of the Lohner-Porsche Mixte would continue (with numerous changes, including a move to Austrian Daimler manufacturing) until 1915, but the revolutionary series hybrid was never a commercial success. While some blame the car’s complexity, the real reason was likely its selling price, which ranged from 14,400 to 34,028 Austrian Krone (approximately $2,900 to $6,850 in 1901 dollars, or about $80,000 to $200,000 in today’s dollars). As with modern hybrids, the additional expense was required to cover both the higher cost of production and the extensive cost of vehicle development, an investment that Jacob Lohner and Company never recovered.
Though the Lohner-Porsche was an innovative design with massive potential, it would take automakers nearly a full century to revisit the idea of a series hybrid automobile. Like the Lohner-Porsche Mixte, the Chevrolet Volt was largely rejected by buyers at launch, primarily for its high cost in comparison to more conventional automobiles (including common parallel hybrids). Even if the Volt never proves to be a commercial success, this much is all but certain: As battery technology improves and gasoline gets ever more scarce, the series hybrid won’t lie dormant for another century.