Porsche invention 110 years later still alive. (Upd. 1899, 1903, fire and more)

hello

the norvegian car is not 1899, but around 19o3. the technical museum has two more, a 19oo and a similar coach of about 19o3 and a lohner electric chassis from 1899. the famous mixe-racer from 19o2 was restored by gerhard von raffay, but unfortunatly destroyed in a fire some weeks ago
regards
mike

In Norway we in fact have an original Porche-Lohner from 1899. It is a coach. At the moment I do not have ant photo.

It is intersting to see today's report about the copy of the Lohner-Porsche 'Semper Vivus' that will be shown at the Geneva Motor Show. I am pleased to note that you have not been taken in by Porsche's publicity material that accompany's the vehicle: "in 1900 Porsche built the first functional hybrid petrol-electric car in the world".
Not so! At the Paris Motor Show that opened on the 15th June 1899 the Etablissements Pieper of Liège, Belgium, exhibited a petrol-electric car which was described in The Autocar's show report (8 July 1899) as: "an interesting car embodying a principle which has often been proposed but never before adopted ...". Reference is made to use of the 'mixed' system, the electric motor being used to start the petrol engine which then drives the car, the electric motor in turn becoming a dynamo which charges the battery, which povides additional power for hill-climbing, and so on; essentailly the same system as used on some hybrid cars today. There is a much more detailed decription of the vehicle in La Locomotion Automobile of 21 September 1899.
Whilst Pieper did not last long in business, its system was taken up by Auto-Mixte and used mainly on commercial vehicles from around 1905 to 1910. The Porsche system in various forms lasted slightly longer, but despite this it was not 'the first' that Porsche these days choose to claim. Malcolm Jeal

They also built the first hybrid motorcar on the same chassis, just adding an engine and a generator.

good porsche buikt a new one: an original was los a few months ago:
http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/leserreporter/aktuell/nachrichten/2011/01/24/1414-tag-lagerhalle-mit-porsche-oldtimern-abgebrannt/in-hamburg.html