The first hybrid car was in part the brainchild of a Viennese coach builder named Jacob Lohner, who felt that gas-driven cars were too noisy and smelly. To find a solution to this problem, Lohner turned to a young Austrian engineer named Ferdinand Porsche. In 1896, when he was just 21 years old, Porsche had invented the electric wheel-hub motor, a battery-operated motor that actually fit inside the hub of a wheel. Lohner asked Porsche to combine his in-wheel motors with one of Lohner's coaches. The result was the Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil. This vehicle was first shown to the general public at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
The first hybrid car wasn't the Toyota Prius nor was it invented in the 1990s or 2000s. In fact, it dates back to the early 20th century. Still, the first hybrid car was brought into existence for reasons that will be familiar to those living in the early 21st century: Internal combustion engines were producing too much foul-smelling pollution.