Porsche was Electric 100 Years Ago: So Why Not Now?

The failing American car company CEOs take hundreds of millions of dollars from failing companies while saying we don't have the technology to go green. They sue the government instead of making cars that get 35 mpg (like China's and Australia's already do) and watch their market share shrink since the cars don't meet the environmental standards of other countries. In California there was a program for electric cars, and many of the car users loved them, but they were repossessed and destroyed. In fact, a documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car, was made on this very matter.

So if a realistic "green" electrical car isn't possible, how come Porsche had a competitive electric car all the way back in 1900? Something definitely doesn't mesh. This year at the Los Angles Auto Show Porsche is not only going to show its dedication to going green by showing the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid SUV (which is already one of the major topics of the auto world), but maybe its earliest sister: the 1900 Porsche electric car, which was later modified to use electricity and gas, making it the first true hybrid automobile.

Why the trip down memory lane? For one, it's a perfect public relations comparison, and it helps highlight Porsche's understanding that as the environment continues to become a bigger and bigger concern that the demands for fuel efficiency and more environmentally friendly cars will continue. Another bragging point is the fact that the original electric Porsche was designed by the founder himself, Ferdinand Porsche, and won the award for "most innovative invention" at the Paris World's Fair in 1900.

This electric car was different from modern versions because it had an electric motor in each front wheel, meaning that though simple, the design was efficient, allowing 83% of all energy expended to go directly to moving the car, as opposed to about 40%, which is roughly the amount used by the average modern internal combustion engine. The car back then went at a top speed of about 30 mph, and different racing versions of it went up to 37 mph, with races often won by Porsche himself. This was a good speed for the time.

The electric Porsche was in trouble because batteries in those days had severe limitations, so to answer this, Porsche added a gasoline engine to create the first Hybrid car. Eventually some of these cars got up to 56 mph-a crazily efficient rate for cars in the first few years of the 20^th century.

As the hybrid cars and SUVs are proving far more popular than most car companies originally thought, the trend for more and better hybrids will continue, and after a nearly 100 year hiatus, it looks like the environmentally green branch of cars has made a comeback that's here to stay. When Porsche makes a hybrid SUV, you know, as the old Bob Dylan song goes, that time's they are a' changing. The hybrid cars are here to stay.

List of Sources:

"Who Killed the Electric Car?" Documentary DVD

Peter Valdes-Dapena "Porsche goes green 100 years ago" http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0711/gallery.porsche_first_hybrid/index.html

"An Inconvenient Truth" DVD Al Gore