How it began
Ferdinand Porsche, a 24-year-old engineer, developed an electric car for the Vienna coachbuilder Jacob Lohner & Co. with Ludwig Lohner. It was shown for the first time on April 14, 1900, in the Palace of Electricity at the Paris Exposition. Porsche then built a version with four hub motors and went on to the Semper Vivus and Mixte, which paired a gasoline engine with a generator.
Before it existed
Electric cars of the time passed power from the motor to the wheels through an intermediate transmission. The New York Times notes that a wheel-hub motor for railroad cars had already been patented in the United States in the 1880s, but calls Porsche's hub motor an engineering breakthrough.
How it works
Electric motors sit directly in the hubs of the front wheels, so no transmission is needed. In the 1900 car two motors delivered 2.5 PS each for a top speed of 32 km/h, and a lead battery gave a range of about 50 kilometers. Brakes acted on all four wheels at once. A modular system offered three motor sizes of up to 12 PS per wheel. In the hybrid, a four-cylinder engine drove a generator that supplied the motors with electricity.
How it spread
About 300 vehicles were built on the Lohner-Porsche system. Forty went to the Vienna fire service, some served as taxis and others went to private buyers. The batteries often caused trouble and there was almost no charging infrastructure. The hub motor soon fell out of favor for passenger cars because other layouts suited mass production better.
What lasted
Porsche describes the four-motor racing version as the first vehicle with all-wheel drive and the Semper Vivus as the first functional hybrid car. The cars made Porsche's name as an engineer. Hub motors returned in the early 1970s, when electric wheel-hub motors powered the lunar rovers of Apollo 15, 16 and 17.
