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This was on display at the LA Auto Show yesterday.

This car was designed by founder, Ferdinand Porsche, whose first great fascination involved electricity. He was hired to build only the electrical components for the car, but after his engineering skills were realized, they requested full carriage work to be done as well. His machine later went on to win "most innovative invention" at the Paris World's fair in 1900. With that title, came free press and a line of customers 300 strong. The car had electric motors in the wheels as you can see above, and a gas engine which recharged the batteries. The car was further advanced to race in various events and Ferdinand Porsche would drive the car himself. This is when it gained electric motors in all four wheels, essentially becoming the first all-wheel drive automobile. Regular versions of the car would reach speeds around 31 mph, but racing variants topped out at speeds closer to 37 mph. This is a Serial hybrid, which means a single engine drives the wheels, compared to both engines on Parallel driven applications such as the Prius. As the Chevy Volt becomes available, it will be one of the first Serial hybrids produced since this car, nearly 100 years ago. Porsche didn't research hybrids further, because gasoline was cheap and all the electrical components were too expensive to see the light of day during that time period.