Which 1900 vehicle is widely regarded as the world’s first hybrid automobile?

The 1900 Lohner-Porsche is widely regarded as the world’s first hybrid automobile.

Ferdinand Porsche designed the vehicle while working for Austrian coachbuilder Jacob Lohner. It combined a gasoline engine with electric motors mounted in the front wheel hubs, allowing the engine to generate electricity for the motors and batteries.

A later version, the Semper Vivus, added an internal-combustion engine as a generator and is often described as the first true hybrid vehicle. The Lohner-Porsche family therefore occupies an important place in hybrid history before modern computerized power management.

The Toyota Prius was the first mass-produced modern hybrid, but it was not the first hybrid automobile. Early hybrid experiments appeared decades before the Prius launched in Japan in 1997.