PEOPLE THINK HYBRIDS ARE SOMETHING NEW, but they've been around since the beginning of the automobile. Ferdinand Porsche built the Lohner-Porsche series hybrid car back in 1901. It used a gas engine to spin a generator that fed electricity to in-wheel motors. In 1917, the Woods Motor Vehicle Company of Chicago offered the Woods Dual Power, a series hybrid that could motor along - at speeds of less than 15 mph - solely on battery power. But I think the 1916 Owen Magnetic might be the most interesting early hybrid of them all.
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