Some people believe that hybrid vehicles began in the early 20th century. In fact, hybrid vehicles have been around longer than you think. The beginning of hybrid technology was believed to be in 1665, when Ferdinand Veriest and the Jesuit priest began working on a plan to create a simple four-wheeled vehicle that could be powered by steam or pulled by a horse. Then in 1769, when the steam carriage was invented. Although this carriage has a speed of six miles per hour, it is still difficult to maintain enough steam for a long-distance journey. It was then improved when gold-worthy British inventor Gurney built a steam-powered car that successfully completed an 85-mile round trip in times of ten hours. Then, in 1893, Moritz Von Jacobi sailed an electric boat on the Neva, using a one-horsepower electromagnetic motor. And in or around that year is when Robert Anderson of Aberdeen, Scotland built the first electric vehicle. However, the vehicle brought many problems such as limited range and a battery that was difficult to recharge. It was later improved upon in 1870 by David Salomon when he developed an electric car with a light electric motor, but he still faced problems in creating a battery that could be easily recharged.

Then, in 1879, Dr. Werner Von Siemens built the first electric railway. The vehicle’s wheels were powered by an electric motor that drew its electricity from rails that were isolated from the ground and connected to a generator. And also in that decade, year 1886, commercial investors in London became interested in developing an electric taxi. The design was powered by a 28-cell mass system that would drive a small electric motor. Even so, this did not come into regular use. Then came the year 1888, a company built a four-passenger carriage for the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It is powered by a one horsepower motor and a 24 cell battery. And that same year, Manus Vol in Brighton, England, made a three-wheeled electric car.

Then, in 1897, the London Electric cab Company began providing regular service to the city, using a cab powered by a 40-cell battery and a three-horsepower electric motor. It was named the “Betsey Cab” after its inventor, Walter Betsey. The cab can travel up to fifty miles before the battery needs to be recharged. Come the year 1897, where the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut built around electric cars over a two-year period.

Then after that year came 1898, the year the world’s first hybrid car was produced, the “mixed” gasoline-electric Porsche Loonier, which was built by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche of Germany. Porsche gave the nickname “Aunt Eulalie” to the first series of hybrids, but officially they were called Simper Viv-us, which means “always alive.” The first hybrid car can travel a distance of forty miles on battery power alone. The car used a gasoline engine that rotated at a constant speed to drive a dynamo, which charged a bank of accumulators. The accumulators then powered the electric motors contained within the front wheel hubs. Thus, there was no need for driveshafts, transmission, gears, belts, chains, or clutch. And due to the rapid success of the hybrid car, companies like Kroger, Lonee Porsche, and Auto Mixtec produced thousands of hybrid cars in the year between 1902 and 1920.

The 1900s saw the creation of gas-electric hybrid cars in Belgium. It was developed by Pieper, a Belgian car manufacturer. He introduced a three-and-a-half-horsepower engine that coupled the small gasoline engine with an electric motor that sits under the seat. The electric motor was, in effect, a generator that recharged the batteries while driving. However, when the car needed some extra power to go up a steep incline, the electric motor kicked in and provided a boost to the petrol engine. And because of the popularity of hybrid electric cars, the Electric Vehicle Company built 2,000 taxis, trucks, and buses, and established a subsidiary of rental car and taxi companies from New York to Chicago in early 1904. In 1905, an American engineer named H. Piper filed a patent for a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle. His idea was to use an electric motor to assist an internal combustion engine, mainly to add the ICE to allow the vehicle to accelerate to 25 miles per hour in 10 seconds, instead of the usual 30 miles per hour. Then, after three and a half years, the patent was issued. By this time, the engines had become powerful enough to achieve this kind of performance of their own.

In 1910, a company by the name of Commercial Built Truck, which used a four-cylinder gasoline engine to power a generator, eliminated the need for a transmission and battery park. This hybrid was built by a company in Philadelphia until 1918. Steam cars and hybrid electric cars almost completely disappeared by 1913. Sales of electric cars dropped to 6,000 vehicles, while more than 180,000 gasoline cars were sold. Many automakers who still believe in the hybrid car idea are still doing their best to get hybrid cars back into production. Like Baker of Cleveland and Woods of Chicago, two prominent electric vehicle manufacturers have offered hybrid cars that can reach a top speed of 35 mph and achieve fuel efficiency of 48 mph. And the Woods Dual Power was more expensive and less powerful than its gas-powered competition, and therefore sold poorly.

And then he considered that the year 1920 to 1965 became the dormant period for mass-produced electric and hybrid cars. However, hybrid vehicle technology has not disappeared and its development continues. Many people still believe in hybrid technology. Hybrid vehicle technology becomes the answer for most of the global problems. As in 1966; The United States Congress introduced the first bills recommending the use of electric vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution. After a long period of quiet, hybrid cars make a comeback in 1969. That same year the General Motors 512 was designed, running entirely on electric power at a speed of less than ten miles per hour. The vehicle ran on a combination of electric power and gas combustion at 10 to 13 miles per hour. The Arab oil embargo became a big deal in 1973. Gas prices skyrocketed, sparking new interest in electric vehicles. The US Department of Energy conducted a test on many electric and hybrid vehicles produced by various manufacturers, including the hybrid known as the Volkswagen Taxi, which was produced by Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, West Germany. The Volkswagen Taxi was shown at car shows in the United States and Europe. It used a parallel hybrid setup that allowed for flexible switching between the gas engine and electric motor and logged more than 8,000 highway miles. Volkswagen Taxi is considered to have the highest efficiency rating of any hybrid it has exhibited up to that point. In 1974, engineers Victor Wok and Charlie Ros-en became part of the federal Clean Car Incentive Program and created a prototype gasoline-powered hybrid electric vehicle with a Buick Skylark body. The vehicle was tested and certified to meet the strict guidelines of an EPA automotive clean air program by the US Environmental Protection Agency, but was later rejected. American Motors developed a fleet of electric vans and delivered 352 electric vans to the US Postal Service, which they tested extensively. Unfortunately, the project did not have the level of success that everyone expected.

The years 1976 to 1980 were the year that hybrid technology has been of great help. The Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976 and Public Law 94-413 enacted by the US Congress were among the law’s goals to work with industry to improve batteries, motors, controllers and other hybrid electrical components. And General Electric was chosen to build a parallel hybrid sedan. And Toyota built a small sports car with a gas turbine generator supplying power to an electric motor, making it Toyota’s first hybrid car. Audi introduced the first generation of the Audi Duo experimental vehicle in 1989. It is based on the Audi 100 Av-anti Quarto. It has a 12.6-horsepower electric motor, which drove the rear wheel instead of the propeller shaft. And also use nickel cadmium battery to supply power. Two years later, Audi introduced the second generation Duo, which is also based on the Audi 100 Av-anti Quarto. Toyota made a comeback by introducing the Pris in 1997, which is exclusive to its Japanese market. That year, the Pris sold 18,000 cars and appeared to be the world’s first mass-marketed hybrid vehicle. Honda then introduced the Insight, a two-door mild-hybrid model that burst onto the US market in 1999. The vehicle could demonstrate a rating of 61 miles per gallon in the city and 70 miles per gallon on the highway.

Then came 2000 the door of the new century is open for hybrid technology. Many car companies and manufacturers introduce and launch many new and improved their own hybrid vehicles. Toyota launched the first available four-door hybrid sedans in the United States in 2000. And Honda introduces Honda Civic Hybrids, its second available gasoline hybrid electric car. The appearance and demonstrability of the car was and remains identical to that of the conventional Civic. And in 2004, Toyota launched the Toyota Pris II, which won the 2004 Car of the Year awards from Motor Trend magazine and the North American Auto Show. Demand for the Toyota Pris II was surprising, inflating production from 36,000 to 47,000 for the US market. Many interested buyers waited up to six months to purchase the 2004 Pris. Also, in September of that year, Ford launched the Escape Hybrid, the first American hybrid and the first hybrid SUV.

The surge in oil output in 2007 had been a major crisis around the world. And so the production of hybrid cars and vehicles had increased. Many car companies and car manufacturers around the world created many different types of hybrid vehicles. Some even convert their ordinary cars into hybrid cars. Many taxis in the Philippines have now a day been using Auto-gas, used as automotive transportation fuel or LP gas as an alternative to gasoline gas. The development of this type of hybrid cars helps many people who are having problems with rising oil prices and become the answer to rising oil prices and air pollution problem.

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