Who Developed Hybrid Cars?

[december]

My spouse and I tend to disagree over whether government grants are better than free enterprise. This morning, we argued over which approach would do more to develop alternative energy sources and to improve energy conservation technology.

As a particular example, we focused on the new gasoline-electic hybrid cars, such as the Honda Insight, with economy ratings of 61 mpg city and 70 mpg highway. Does anyone know who deserves the credit for this new technology?

[sethdallob]

Well, Toyota had the Prius in Japan in 1997, which uses the same idea as the Insight.

There really is no revolutionary technology here – it’s just combining rechargeable batteries with a regular engine…so as far as credits go – you could credit the inventors of the modern battery and the internal combustion engine (which I won’t attempt to name here for fear of nitpickers).

[yabob]

You may be interested in this Scientific American article:

http://www.sciam.com/1097issue/1097wouk.html

I remember the flurry of activity around hybrids back in the 70’s.

[Homer]

From the latest Popular Mechanics (March 2001):

How far back do have to go to be ahead of your time? Think it’s new? Think again! As early as 1914, Popular Mechanics featured a hybrid gas-electric automobile. Even so, the hybrid technology predates even this article.

The hybrid built by Justus B. Entz in Philadelphia in 1897 was likely the world’s first “dual-power,” as they were called. On a test drive, a passenger (who happened to be inventor Hiram Percy Maxim) caught his foot on a wire to the ammeter, causing an arc that ignited the gas and toasted the vehicle.

Despite this incendiary beginning, the idea did not go up in smoke. Early European hybrids, called “petro-electrics,” included entries from Mercedes and Lohner-Porsche. In the United States, a hybrid ran the New York to Boston Reliability Test in 1902, performing adequately – despite being run off the road by a horse-drawn wagon.

Baker and Woods, two well-known manufacturers of electric vehicles, both came out with dual-powers in 1917. Yet both abandoned production after deciding that the dual-drive principle only added complexity, weight and cost.

In recent years, environmental concerns and new technologies have revived hybrid experimentation among most auto manufacturers. Hybrids may succeed too – if we just keep them away from open flames and horse drawn wagons.

Ecclesiastes 1:8-10

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

–Tim