The uncomfortable truth about hybrid vehicles
Published: (March 8, 2026 at 08:00 AM EDT)
1 min read
Source: The Verge
Source: The Verge
How it started
Apologies to the Toyota Prius, but the first hybrid vehicle of note was the Semper Vivus, developed by Ferdinand Porsche (yes, that Porsche) way back in 1900. The Semper Vivus (Latin for “always alive”) used two combustion engines to power generators, which then fed electricity to motors inside the wheel hubs. The fact that it took modern engineers over a century to really appreciate th …