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History of Hybrid Car

Due to the demand of having a car wherein everyone can consume less fuel and will not contribute to the air pollution, the hybrid car was finally created to meet this end. And due to the rapid advancements in the gasoline engine, the hybrid car has become extremely popular.

A hybrid car is a means of transportation using two power sources; it uses a rechargeable energy storage system found on board and a fuelled power source as the vehicle’s driving force. The hybrid car pollutes less and uses less fuel.

Back in 1899, Ferdinand Porsche have developed and led the way to the very first working hybrid-electric vehicle. Other people followed suit in Ferdinand Porsche’s invention. Many people who became interested in the hybrid-vehicle concept have been continually making hybrid cars.  However, there was no major car manufacturer who invested in the hybrid concept and mass produced hybrid cars until the late twentieth century. The hybrid technology was mainly utilized in developing diesel-electric submarines during that interim period.

The diesel-electric submarines mainly operate very much the same as a hybrid car. However, the submarines main goal was to conserve oxygen rather than spend less fuel. During the later years, submarines have evolved and have begun using the nuclear power as a substitute for diesel.

During the 1990′s, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight were the first successful hybrid cars available in the market. It was two of the pioneers in the hybrid car concept which virtually changed the way the world thinks about cars.

An idealistic inventor, Victor Wouk, manufactured a hybrid electric and gas motor vehicle that siphoned fuel at half the amount as practically all the other cars being built then. He built the hybrid car thirty years before the Toyota Prius got the attention of the U.S. as an energy-anxious nation. The account about the hybrid car and its inventor, who died in May, 2005, at age 86, is unfamiliar among even the most avid fans of the growing hybrid car association. In terms of hybrid car knowledge, it is in fact America that should have led all other countries. Wouk said that the government program that he developed about hybrids was unknown to everyone.

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Victor Wouk founded and sold two successful electric industrialized companies in the late 1940s and 50s and in 1962 he was approach by Russell Feldman, one of the founders of Motorola, who recognized the pollution from the automobile as one of the biggest problem of the environment and he wanted to discover the possible solutions with regards to this problem. But his experiment did not work much for the possible solution.

Having an idea, Wouk pondered the problem throughout the 60s and ultimately reached a clever solution. He combined the low-emission benefits of an electric car with the power of a gasoline engine to produce a hybrid vehicle. But Wouk did not get any response to his ideas for creating a hybrid car; in fact he was heavily criticized for not believing in a full-electric system. With the help of his colleague, Charlie Rosen, who shared his belief about hybrid cars, gave him the chance to prove his ideas of creating the hybrid car as one of the solution to the rapid health cost of auto-pollution. And now the impressive capabilities of the invention of Wouk, the hybrid cars, can now be a very great help in terms of less fuel consumption and less air pollution.  Wouk and Rosen put up a new company particularly to developed their hybrid car idea and make it possible to be in the market and be used as an everyday car that belched far less harmful vapors than contemporary vehicles.

The Prius

Ever since the Toyota Prius was released in the market, it has been able to remain as the premier choice of hybrid cars available. It is true that old hybrid cars looks more like an alien car and cost far more than the conventional car. However, because of the latest technology installed in newer versions of hybrid cars, it looks more like a conventional car and is far cheaper than its predecessors. It is a fact that hybrid cars today looks very much like conventional cars. However, it will enable you to cut fuel consumption in half.

For example, the Honda Civic Hybrid car looks very much like its conventional version. However, when you look at it closely, the hybrid version of the Civic is able to conserve fuel much better than its gasoline counterpart. The Civic Hybrid can get you 50 miles in just one gallon of gasoline.

During the year 2004, Ford has developed and introduced the very first hybrid SUV, which is the Ford Escape Hybrid. A year later, Toyota also introduced their line of hybrid SUV called the Highlander Hybrid. Because of the growing demand for hybrid cars, other car manufacturers are now following the footsteps of the other companies who already released a version of their hybrid car in the market. For example, Nissan is now planning to develop and introduce a hybrid version of the Nissan Altima.

Nowadays, over 300,000 hybrid cars are running on American roads wherein 95 percent of them are Japanese made. The hybrid vehicles are truly very different technology that can both save money and our environment.

www.globalwarming-prevention.com
History of Hybrid Car

Ever curious how exactly hybrid cars became the economic revelation they are today? Well, it definitely didn’t start in the 1990s, that’s for sure. In fact, alternative-fuel vehicles and transportation were being developed as far back as 1665, which Flemish inventors used to experiment with steam-power in order to power unmanned cars, and, moving forward to the 1700s, steam-powered carriages.

For the most part, though, these were small developments, and it wasn’t until nearly 1900, in 1898, that the first real hybrid car made its grand debut. Although there are conflicting views as to which hybrid came first, the actual hybrid car developed by Porsche utilized a similar engine as in conventional vehicles today to rotate a generator that would power electric motors, located in the actual car wheel’s hubs. This particular Porsche was able to travel to nearly 40 miles simply utilizing the power in the battery pack before it had to quit, and by 1899, two more hybrids had appeared in Paris, at the city’s Salon.

In the earlier years of the twentieth century, there were thousands of hybrid and electric cars being produced and showcased. It seemed that electric and hybrid cars would be the way to travel, and in 1900, the “voiturette,” the first of these hybrids, was made by Pieper and was very similar to the hybrids we already know. The only difference was most likely in the exterior. After all, the French didn’t necessarily have flames painted along the car and spinners on the rims. For this particular hybrid, the purpose of the battery was to help the car in making its way up hills, and while the car was cruising, the battery would recharge itself. There was even a reliability test in 1902 to see which would fare better, a hybrid, or steam-powered or gas-powered vehicles.

But, then, at some point around the 1920s, hybrids suddenly vanished from the public eye, as if they had never existed. Why and how did that happen?

The answer to that is two words: Henry Ford. Ford’s Model T was not only gas-powered, but his production utilized the assembly line, which made these cars much faster to produce, and easier to do so. Regardless of Ford’s later influence, though, in 1905, H. Piper, an engineer, was hoping to patent his own hybrid vehicle that would use an electric motor along with a gas-powered engine. Even in 1905, someone had thought of the hybrids we would use today. The problem was finding the support needed.

There were also hybrid trucks that were used from 1910 to 1918, and still, hybrid cars offered in 1916 could still reach 48 miles to the gallon, although speeds were much lower. Still, efficiency-wise, the hybrid from 1916 was better than the vast majority of conventional and hybrid cars on the market.

Unfortunately, any plans for hybrids were dropped in the 1920s when Ford’s Model T flooded the automobile market. From 1920 to 1965, there was simply no chance for hybrids to develop. Then, in 1969, GM began to experiment with hybrid cars again, and the next thirty years would be filled with tireless efforts of scientists, inventors, and engineers to help create a fast, eco-friendly hybrid.

Finally, in 1997, manufacturers Toyota and Audi premiered their hybrid cars to mixed reactions. The vehicles were hardly flawless, so it took some time to before hybrids were picked back up by manufacturers and kinks were worked out.

But, the most interesting fact about all of this is that considering the history of hybrids, these cars were originally the vehicle of choice for most engineers. So, how could things have been different if hybrids had remained in the spotlight and not blotted out by Henry Ford?