1665 – 1825 Between 1665 and 1680,
Flemish Jesuit priest and astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest created plans
for a miniature four-wheel unmanned steam “car” for Chinese Emperor
Khang Hsi. In 1769, Frenchman Nicholas Cugnot built a steam-powered
motor carriage capable of six miles per hour. In 1825, British inventor
Goldsworthy Gurney built a steam car that successfully completed an 85
mile round-trip journey in ten hours time. (Steamers dominated the
automotive landscape until the late 19th century.)
1839
Robert Anderson of Aberdeen, Scotland built the first electric vehicle.
1870
Sir David Salomon developed a
car with a light electric motor and very heavy storage batteries.
Driving speed and range were poor.
1886
Historical records indicate
that an electric-powered taxicab, using a battery with 28 cells and a
small electric motor, was introduced in England.
1888
Immisch & Company built a
four-passenger carriage, powered by a one-horsepower motor and 24-cell
battery, for the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In the same year, Magnus
Volk in Brighton, England made a three-wheeled electric car.
1890 – 1910
Period of significant
improvements in battery technology, specifically with development of
the modern lead-acid battery by H. Tudor and nickel-iron battery by
Edison and Junger.
1897
The London Electric Cab
Company began regular service using cars designed by Walter Bersey. The
Bersey Cab, which used a 40-cell battery and 3 horsepower electric
motor, could be driven 50 miles between charges.
1897
The Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, built around 500 electric cars over a two-year period.
1898
The Austrian Dr. Ferdinand
Porsche, at age 23, built his first car, the Lohner Electric Chaise. It
was the world’s first front-wheel-drive. Porsche’s second car was a
hybrid, using an internal combustion engine to spin a generator that
provided power to electric motors located in the wheel hubs. On battery
alone, the car could travel nearly 40 miles.
1898
The Electric Carriage and Wagon Company, of New York City, had a fleet of twelve sturdy and stylish electric cabs.
1899
The Pope Manufacturing Company
merged with two smaller electric car companies to form the Electric
Vehicle Company, the first large-scale operation in the American
automobile industry. The company had assets of $200 million.
Two hybrids appeared at the Paris Salon.
1900
American car companies made
1,681 steam, 1,575 electric and 936 gasoline cars. In a poll conducted
at the first National Automobile Show in New York City, patrons favored
electric as their first choice, followed closely by steam.
1900
A Belgian carmaker, Pieper,
introduced a 3-1/2 horsepower "voiturette" in which the small gasoline
engine was mated to an electric motor under the seat. When the car was
"cruising," its electric motor was in effect a generator, recharging
the batteries. But when the car was climbing a grade, the electric
motor, mounted coaxially with the gas engine, gave it a boost. The
Pieper patents were used by a Belgium firm, Auto-Mixte, to build
commercial vehicles from 1906 to 1912.
1902
A series-hybrid runabout competed against steam and gas-powered cars in a New York to Boston reliability test.
1904
The Electric Vehicle Company
built 2000 taxicabs, trucks, and buses, and set up subsidiary cab and
car rental companies from New York to Chicago. Smaller companies,
representing approximately 57 auto plants, turned out about 4000 cars.
1904
Henry Ford overcame the
challenges posed by gasoline-powered cars — noise, vibration, and odor —
and began assembly-line production of low-priced, lightweight,
gas-powered vehicles. Within a few years, the Electric Vehicle Company
failed.
1905
An American engineer named H.
Piper filed a patent for a petrol-electric hybrid vehicle. His idea was
to use an electric motor to assist an internal-combustion engine,
enabling it to achieve 25 mph.
1905
The Woods Interurban, an
electric car that allowed long-distance drivers to swap the electric
power unit for a two-cylinder gas engine (supposedly a fifteen-minute
job), failed to get more than a handful of customers.
1910
Commercial built a hybrid
truck which used a four-cylinder gas engine to power a generator,
eliminating the need for both transmission and battery pack. This
hybrid was built in Philadelphia until 1918.
1913
With the advent of the
self-starter (making it easy for all drivers to start gas engines),
steamers and electrics were almost completely wiped out. In this year,
sales of electric cars dropped to 6,000 vehicles, while the Ford Model T
sold 182,809 gasoline cars.
1916
Two prominent
electric-vehicle makers — Baker of Cleveland and Woods of Chicago —
offered hybrid cars. Woods claimed that their hybrid reached a top
speed of 35 mph and achieved fuel efficiency of 48 mpg. The Woods Dual
Power was more expensive and less powerful than its gasoline
competition, and therefore sold poorly.
1920 – 1965
Dormant period for
mass-produced electric and hybrid cars. So-called alternative cars
became the province of backyard tinkerers and small-time entrepreneurs.
1966
U.S. Congress introduced first bills recommending use of electric vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution.
1968 – 1971
Three scientists working at TRW, a major auto supplier, created a
practical hybrid powertrain. Dr. Baruch Berman, Dr. George H. Gelb and
Dr. Neal A. Richardson developed, demonstrated and patented the
system—designated as an electromechanical transmission (EMT) providing
brisk vehicle performance with an engine smaller than required by a
conventional internal combustion engine drive. Many of the engineering
concepts incorporated in that system are used in today’s hybrids.
1969 The GM 512, a very lightweight experimental
hybrid car, ran entirely on electric power up to 10 miles per hour.
From 10 to 13 miles per hour, it ran on a combination of batteries and
its two-cylinder gas engine. Above thirteen miles per hour, the GM 512
ran on gasoline. It could only reach 40 miles per hour.
1970s
With the Arab oil embargo of
1973, the price of gasoline soared, creating new interest in electric
vehicles. The U.S. Department of Energy ran tests on many electric and
hybrid vehicles produced by various manufacturers, including a hybrid
known as the “VW Taxi” produced by Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, West
Germany. The Taxi, which used a parallel hybrid configuration allowing
flexible switching between the gasoline engine and electric motor,
logged over 8,000 miles on the road, and was shown at auto shows
throughout Europe and the United States.
1974
As part of the Federal Clean Car Incentive Program, engineers
Victor Wouk
and Charlie Rosen created a prototype hybrid gas-electric vehicle
using a Buick Skylark body. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
tested the vehicle, certified that it met the strict guidelines for an
EPA clean-air auto program — and rejected it out of hand.
1975
AM General, a division of
American Motors, began delivery of 352 electric vans to the U.S. Postal
Service for testing. The U.S. Energy Research and Development
Administration began a government program to advance electric and
hybrid technology.
1976
U.S. Congress enacted Public
Law 94-413, the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and
Demonstration Act of 1976. Among the law’s objectives were to work with
industry to improve batteries, motors, controllers, and other
hybrid-electric components.
General Electric was chosen to construct a parallel-hybrid sedan,
and Toyota built its first hybrid — a small sports car with a
gas-turbine generator supplying current to an electric motor.
1977 – 1979
General Motors spent
over $20 million in electric car development and research, reporting
that electric vehicles could be in production by the mid-1980s.
1979 Dave Arthurs of Springdale,
Arkansas, spent $1,500 turning a standard Opel GT into a hybrid car
that could get 75 miles per gallon, using a six-horsepower lawnmower
engine, a four-hundred-amp electric motor, and an array of six-volt
batteries.
Mother Earth News used the Arthurs plan to build their own hybrid, which averaged 75 miles per gallon. Sixty thousand
Mother Earth News readers wrote in for the plans, when the magazine published their results.
1980
Briggs
and Stratton, the company known for manufacturing lawn mower engines,
developed a hybrid car powered by a twin cyclinder four-stroke 16hp
gasoline engine and an electric motor—for total of 26 horsepower. The
hybrid drivetrain provided power for a custom-designed two-door vehicle
with six wheels—two in front and four in the back.
1989
Audi unveiled the first
generation of the Audi Duo experimental vehicle, based on the Audi 100
Avant Quattro. The car had a 12.6 horsepower electric engine, which
drove the rear wheels instead of a propeller shaft. A nickel-cadmium
battery supplied the energy. The front-wheel drive was powered by a
2.3-litre five-cylinder engine with an output of 136 horsepower. Two
years later, Audi unveiled the second generation Duo, also based on the
Audi 100 Avant quattro.
1991
The United States Advanced
Battery Consortium (USABC), a Department of Energy program, launched a
major program to produce a “super” battery to get viable electric
vehicles on the road as soon as possible. The USABC would go on to
invest more than $90 million in the nickel hydride (NiMH) battery. The
NiMH battery can accept three times as many charge cycles as lead-acid,
and can work better in cold weather.
1992
Toyota Motor Corporation
announced the "Earth Charter," a document outlining goals to develop
and market vehicles with the lowest emissions possible.
1993 The Clinton Administration announced a
government initiative called the Partnership for a New Generation of
Vehicles (PNGV). In the program, the government worked with the
American auto industry to develop a clean car that could operate at up
to 80 miles per gallon. Several years and a billion dollars later, the
PNGV emerged with three prototypes for their 80 mpg car. Every
prototype was a hybrid.
Toyota’s exclusion from PNGV prompted Chairman Eiji Toyoda to
create a secret project called G21, Global Car for the 21st Century.
The following year, Toyota doubled its original goal of improving fuel
efficiency by 50 percent.
1997
The Toyota Prius was introduced to the
Japanese market, two years before its original launch date, and prior
to the Kyoto global warming conference held in December. First-year
sales were nearly 18,000.
1997
Audi became the first
manufacturer in Europe to take a hybrid vehicle into volume production:
the Audi duo based on the A4 Avant. The vehicle was powered by a 90
horsepower 1.9-litre TDI in conjunction with a 29 horsepower electric
motor. Both power sources drove the front wheels. A lead-gel battery at
the rear stored the electrical energy. The Duo was not a commercial
success and therefore discontinued, prompting European carmakers to
focus their R&D investment on diesels.
1997 – 1999
A small selection of
all-electric cars from the big automakers — including Honda’s EV Plus,
GM’s EV1 and S-10 electric pickup, a Ford Ranger pickup, and Toyota’s
RAV4 EV — were introduced in California. Despite the enthusiasm of
early adopters, the electrics failed to reach beyond a few hundred
drivers for each model. Within a few years, the all-electric programs
were dropped.
1999
Honda released the two-door
Insight, the first hybrid car to hit the mass market in the United
States. The Insight won numerous awards and received EPA mileage
ratings of 61 mpg city and 70 mpg highway.
2000 Toyota released the
Toyota Prius, the first hybrid four-door sedan available in the United States.
2002 Honda introduced the
Honda Civic Hybrid,
its second commercially available hybrid gasoline-electric car. The
appearance and drivability of the Civic Hybrid was (and still is)
identical to the conventional Civic.
2004
The Toyota Prius II won 2004
Car of the Year Awards from Motor Trend Magazine and the North American
Auto Show. Toyota was surprised by the demand and pumped up its
production from 36,000 to 47,000 for the U.S. market. Interested buyers
waited up to six months to purchase the 2004 Prius. Toyota Motor Sales
U.S.A. President Jim Press called it "the hottest car we’ve ever had."
In September, Ford released the
Escape Hybrid, the first American hybrid and the first
SUV hybrid.
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