Who and when invented the first hybrid car?
Mixed vehicles, also known as hybrid cars, contain two different engines operating at the same time. One of the engines is usually gasoline powered, while the other is an electric motor. While the liquid fuel engine is the engine that gives the vehicle the driving force, the battery-powered electric motor is used for external power support.
The most important advantage of hybrid cars is that they reduce carbon dioxide emissions and are extremely efficient in oil use. The batteries that make the electric motor work are charged by a mechanism called the energy-saving braking system. In some models, drivers can continue to work with only the electric motor, especially when the car is stopped or can be in motion for a long time, by completely turning off the gasoline-powered engine at any time.
The most important step in hybrid car technology was taken by Victor Wouk, who lived between 1919 and 2005 and was the brother of novelist Herman Wouk. Victor was an electrical engineer and was commissioned by the National Clean Car Incentive Program, which went into effect in 1970. Petro-Electric Motors Ltd. After founding the company named chemist Charles Rosen with his friend Charles Rosen in 1974, the duo modified the Buick Skylark model car and managed to use two engines running both liquid fuel and electricity in the car, thus doubling the distance that can be traveled with a tank of gasoline.
Victor Wouk (April 27, 1919 – May 19, 2005) was an American scientist. He was the pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles. Victor Wouk, the younger brother of the writer Herman Wouk, was born in 1919 in New York City, the son of Esther (née Levine) and Abraham Isaac Wouk. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus. His father toiled for many years to raise the family out of poverty before opening a successful laundry service. He earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1939 and received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1942. His dissertation was Static electricity generated during the distribution of gasoline.
Using two engines was much more efficient compared to the relatively poor performance of electric-only cars. Unfortunately, at that time, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the major car manufacturers in the United States, were not very interested in the hybrid car. Wouk and Rosen closed the company after a while, and Wouk returned to his old consulting job.
The term hybrid can actually be used for many vehicles in general. Bicycles with a small electric motor, trains with diesel and electric motors, and ships with masts and sails with diesel engines can also be called hybrid vehicles. In 2008, hybrid vehicle sales in the United States reached 200,000 per year, of which 95% were produced in Japan.