At the age of 18, Ferdinand Porsche boarded a train in North Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), and headed for Vienna and his first job with Jacob Lohner, a coachbuilder. Despite having no formal engineering education, Porsche quickly drafted up plans for an ambitious project, harnessing electric power. The car boasted a completely friction free drivetrain, due to the hub-mounted electric motors which negated the use of gears or driveshafts. Each internal-pole electric motor was capable of 2.5 hp (1.9 kW) to 3.5 hp (2.6 kW) peaking to 7 hp (5.2 kW) for short bursts.
Ferdinand Porsche presented his electric Lohner-Porsche, featuring steered wheel-hub motors, at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. By the end of that year, he had combined this electric-drive technology with petrol power - and created the world's first fully-functional serial hybrid vehicle, the 'Semper Vivus' ('Always Alive').
The Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid was the first hybrid vehicle developed in 1899 by Ferdinand Porsche. It was a series hybrid using wheel hub motors mounted in each wheel, and powered by electricity delivered from both batteries and a small generator.
