Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of Porsche Cars, was an innovator who was way ahead of his time. As the first electric car by Porsche, the Porsche Taycan, is finally arriving in the market, let me tell you about Porsche’s first electric car from 1898!
The first Porsche electric car made its way to the market back in 1898. Crazy right? or shall I say “Car-zy”! Ferdinand Porsche, as a young boy, was always intrigued by electricity. By following his dream, in the year 1893, he moved from a small town to Vienna. At this time, he was only an 18-year-old. after moving to the city, he became an apprentice at an electrical firm, Bela Egger & Co. Simultaneously, he enrolled himself to be a student at the Imperial Technical University in Reichenberg.
The Porsche P1
On June 26, 1898, the P1 came out on the streets of Vienna. Mr.Porsche was quite confident and ambitious to nickname the car the P1, as he already knew that more cars will be made by him in the future. The Porche P1 was the first car of the company and it was also the first car to be registered in Austria in 1898.
There is another similarity between the P1 and the Taycan. Like the Taycan, the P1 did not have a single-gear mechanism. It rocked a 12-speed controller that provided the power to the wheels. Six of these controllers were responsible for forward movement, 2 were for reverse and 4 of these acted as brakes. The maximum range of the P1 was a whopping 50 miles (80km), which was way farther than any of the gasoline vehicles at that time.
The P1 also won its first race in September 1899 in Berlin. It was in an international exhibition of 19 electric vehicle manufacturer. Mr.Porsche himself drove the car to the finish line as the other vehicles struggled to finish the race. At the time, only four P1s were made after which Porsche joined Lohner & Co. as their chief designer.