Below is some info I took from the net and thought I would share its good reading:

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 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 German 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 forty 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.

1900
In the year 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 be steam.

In the first few years of the twentieth century, thousands of electric and hybrid cars were produced. This car, made in 1903 by the Krieger company, used a gasoline engine to supplement a battery pack. Henry Ford’s assembly line and the advent of the self-starting gas engine signaled a rapid decline in hybrid cars by 1920.
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.

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.

This 1921 Owen Magnetic Model 60 Touring uses a gasoline engine to run a generator that supplies electric power to motors mounted in each of the rear wheels.
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.

1969
The GM 512, a very lightweight experimental hybrid car, ran entirely on electric power up to ten miles per hour. From ten to thirteen 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 in 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.

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.

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 83.6 miles per gallon. Sixty thousand Mother Earth News readers wrote in for the plans, when the magazine published their results.

1982
“All About Electric & Hybrid Cars,” written by Robert J. Traister, is published by Tab Books. Traister “wonders” if the problem of battery energy storage could be solved by installing a generator to the drive shaft, allowing the generator to automatically charge the batteries as the car traveled down the road.

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.

1997
Toyota Prius went on sale to the public in Japan. First-year sales were nearly 18,000.

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 wins 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 introduces 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 pumps up its production from 36,000 to 47,000 for the U.S. Market. Interested buyers wait up to six months to purchase the 2004 Prius. In September, Ford releases the Escape Hybrid, the first American hybrid and the first SUV hybrid.



I hope you found this as enjoyable reading as I did.

 

Wow, PriusGuy, that is indeed impressive!!

Quote:

1904

I assume this meant to say "lightweight, electric-powered"?

I hadn't heard this (or 90% of the facts!). I did hear a story, though, that Edison discouraged Ford (they were supposedly associates) from building electric cars because he was protective of "his technology" - probably not a true story, in light of the fact quoted here.

Edison did, however, as I understand it, argue that three-phase power was too dangerous for the public, and that they should stick to his DC power transmission systems! The guy must have had one hell of an ego.

 

In mid 1970's a freind of mine mounted a car starter and a battery on a mini-bike for a EV-bike.

Does that count?

 

Is it OK to post such copyrighted page without showing the source?
http://www.hybridcars.com/history.html

Ken@Japan

 

Interesting how rapidly the technology developed in the late 1800's, and then stopped for 70 years. Guess my civic isn't as high tech as I thought

 

Victor Wouk made a hybrid Oldsmobile that got double - 30mpg with a wankel/electic powerplant in the mid 70s. Interview here. Due to the limited technology, it had to be plugged in overnight. His brother was the famous Winds of War author Herman Wouk's .

The technology was so similar, Toyota later gave Victor Wouk a Prius.

 

"challenges posed by gasoline-powered cars—noise, vibration, and odor"

I'd say this is still the case.

EVs are where it's at. Charging from renewable electric sources...or short-term during off-peak times when electricity is just wasted.

 

They used to take trips together, along with Harvey Firestone. On a couple of occasions they visited President Calvin Coolidge (at least once in Massachusetts and at least once in Vermont). Here they are in Vermont:

 

Here's a question for the more recent history buffs.
I've heard rumors that Toyota is discontinuing production of the Hybrid Camry due to poor demand.

We love ours, 15K on the odo...38-40mpg and constantly improving, great ride.

Anyone else know about this?

 

When we visited the Georgetown KY plant that builds them last year, they reported 1/3d of all Camrys are hybrids. We are visiting them again Oct. 13 if you would like to see the plant and how they are made.

Bob Wilson