Ferdinand Porsche

In 1900, 25-year-old Ferdinand Porsche became the father of the hybrid car when he came up with the Semper Vivus, the world's first functional hybrid car. The Semper Vivus (Latin for Always Alive) was unlike any other vehicle and took the 1901 Paris Motor Show by surprise.

Semper Vivus

The Semper Vivus was essentially an electric car with batteries, but it also had a gasoline engine that spun a generator to recharge said batteries. As long as there was fuel in the tank, the Semper Vivus was "always alive" and would achieve a virtually unlimited driving range.

Porsche-Lohner Mixte

Soon after, Porsche made an improved version of the Semper Vivus called the Porsche-Lohner Mixte, but it failed to capture the world’s imagination. That’s not surprising, since the Mixte had an astronomical price tag for 1901, a sum roughly equivalent to over $98,0000 in today’s terms.