Ferdinand Porsche

Over the past decade, as the realities of climate change become increasingly impossible to ignore, people have begun to see hybrid cars as a way to stem the tide of emissions and diminish dependence on shrinking supplies of petroleum. Although Toyota is known for creating the first gas-electric model to be fully embraced by consumers, Porsche actually was in the business long before the Prius existed: in 1900, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, a 24-year-old Ferdinand Porsche, who was then working for the Vienna-based carriage maker Jakob Lohner & Co., caused a sensation by presenting an electric automobile, the Lohner-Porsche, driven by an innovative wheel-hub motor. That same year, Ferdinand Porsche combined a petroleum engine with an electric drive, and the hybrid automobile was born. The forthcoming Porsche Cayenne, a hybrid SUV due to be introduced by the end of 2010, continues the tradition of innovation that Ferdinand Porsche ignited over a century ago. "Ferdinand Porsche: Hybrid Automobile Pioneer," a collectible edition featuring 150 color images, including numerous unpublished pictures and documents from the historical archive of Porsche AG, adds an important early chapter to the story of hybrid automobiles' journey from concept to prototype to game-changing market reality.