Hybrid & electric cars

[mw0njm.]

Armstrong Phaeton: The world's First Hybrid Car​

The 1896 Armstrong Phaeton was a gasoline-electric hybrid automobile considered one of the earliest hybrid cars. Designed by Harry E. Dey and built by the Armstrong Manufacturing Company, it featured an opposed, twin-cylinder gasoline engine paired with an electric generator, an electrically controlled clutch, and an early form of regenerative braking. The car could run on gas, electricity, or both, and included advanced features for its time like electric self-starting and lights.
The flywheel was even reportedly powerful enough to power the carriage by itself for short distances.
Armstrong was contracted to build the prototype, which appeared in an 1896 issue of Horseless Age magazine (presumably the Motor Trend of its day).
Rogers formed the American Horseless Carriage Company to market the car, but neither entity survived past 1896

made in usa

 

[Smudger]

And there were electric cars in the US. Here is a Columbia from 1901 , which I photographed at the Beaulieu motor museum some time ago

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Cars had a personality back then. So mundane these days.