The History of Hybrid Cars.

Just where did the hybrid car get it's start in life? Well, read on to find out - it'll surprise you!.

Hybrid cars are very popular to today's car buyers, and there are many reasons why. But before you even think about selecting a hybrid car to buy, you might want to know a little bit about the history of the hybrid car first.

Surprisingly, hybrid cars were around even before petrol-powered cars.

Back in about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist began plans for a certain type of vehicle. That vehicle would be very simple, nothing complex, or intricate. Simple was all he wanted.

So Ferdinand designed a car that would have four wheels and would run only on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to carry out his plan. He laboured to perfect his dream car.

However,no one knows if he ever finished his project, because there is no evidence that his concept ever came into existence. Then in 1769, a man by the name of Nicholas Cugnot developed a carriage that was driven by steam. This carriage did in fact work, and it could go at six miles per hour. This project was great, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed that would allow the car to go any significant distance.

A break through in hybrid car design finally came when Robert Anderson developed an electrically powered car in 1839. It was the first of its breed and was built in Scotland. This electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time.

However, the only problem was that it was very difficult to recharge the car's battery. Some pioneers came after Anderson, but they too had a hard time getting the battery recharged easily.

Finally in the year 1898 Porsche produced an electric and fuel combustion engine that was the first of its time. The car was called the "Lohner Electric Chaise", and it could go for up to 40 miles just using batteries.

Within a short space of time, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would become today's hybrid vehicle.

In 1999, Honda took a leap into the US market. It came out with the Honda "Insight", which was a lightweight two-door hybrid vehicle. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the market today.

Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it's nice to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they want to go.

Hybrid cars started out simple, and they are still quite simple today. These days hybrid cars are becoming increasingly more popular as people are coming to understand them better.

In the 21st century, hybrids saw a big boom in sales after the Toyota "Prius" came on the streets. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was marketed in America. Soon after, the Ford "Escape" hybrid became the very first SUV hybrid ever made.

So there it is in a nutshell, the history of the hybrid car - today's modern car.