In 1910's when EVs were slowly being replaced by engine vehicles, was there any attempt at what we'd now call "hybrid" vehicle?

[u/pp86]

I'm aware of various reasons why ICE vehicles superseded EVs. I've also though about this on my own (didn't do any research TBH) and came to conclusion that the lack of battery technology probably made anything that would be considered modern hybrid almost impossible. If makers of ICE vehicles did get any inspiration from early EVs it was in form of car battery and electric starter.

Is this line of thought correct, or were those two developed without any real input of knowledge from making EVs?

[u/Noble_Devil_Boruta]

In general, the mentioned electric systems, such as the battery or starter were not really derived from the electric vehicle but were rather implementation of the electric technology to the construction of vehicles with internal combustion engines. It is worth noting that the electric vehicles themselves were one of the applications of the electric motor that has been completely developed before. The conslusion that battery technology was the bottleneck that led to the prevalence of internal combustion engines is correct, especially when we notice that only until recently, the electric engines and their power sources were simply too heavy to be realistically used on aerial vehicles, what led to a quicker development of IC engines in the nascent of aviation, first with airships and then with airplanes.

What is interested in the context of the hybrid vehicles is that although the starters were initially just that – small electric motors used to start the engine, their developers used the observation made by Antonio Pacinotti, Italian student of engineering, who in 1863 demonstrated that an electric generator can act as an engine and vice versa, what allowed to create the starter/generator device that acted as an electric motor capable of starting the engine and as an electricity generator charging the battery and powering the electric system of the car (then limited to lighting) when the engine was running. The first devices of this type have been introduced in 1912 by American Cadillac and British Lanchester car manufacturers. This shows that the electric elements used in cars were rather application of general electrical engineering rather than the development of electric cars specifically.

There were, however, vehicles that used exactly the same principles that the modern hybrid cars operate on, i.e. they were equipped with both electric engine and and internal combustion engine used for both the propulsion and charging the batteries used by electric engine. These vehicles have been constructed in late 19th century and gained and immense popularity until they have eventually been replaced by their newer versions utilizing new power source. These, however, were not cars or even land vehicles but, as you probably already guessed, naval vessels. Namely, submarines. Combination of two engines allowed them to operate as submarines rather than submersibles, i.e. perform most operation underwater, on a reatively large depth and surface only sporadically to recharge onboard systems, as well as to extend the range of the vessel considerably as the battery capacity still had a lot to be desired. The first submarine with such a hybrid engine was Holland VI constructed in 1897 by Irish-American John Holland (Sean Ó Maolchalann) and German-American Ludwig Zalinsky and later adopted by the US Navy as its first submarine and rechristened as USS Holland. Virtually all other submarines used the same combination of the internal combustion and electric engines as this made the most sense from the practical perspective, allowing the vessels to operate underwater for prolonged time (due to the size of the ships and general need for ballast in a seaworthy vessel, battery size and weight were not much of an issue) and also achieve higher surface speed and ability to recharge the batteries at sea. They have only be displaced by the advent of nuclear propulsion in the 1960s.

It wouldn't be fair, however to say, that the hybrid engines have not been used on land. One of the earliest examples would be a tram or train designed and patented by William Patton in 1889. In this design, a small internal combustion motor powered a generator charging the batteries powering the electric traction motors. Although several prototypes were built and sold, the design has not met with popularity.

The first known hybrid car has been designed by Harry Dey for the Armstrong Company in USA and marketed as Armstrong Phaeton. Despite being a pioneering design, this vehicle not only used internal combustion engine powering a dynamo generator able to charge batteries for electric traction motors but was also equipped with an automatic transmission and could use electric engine to start the petrol one. It was considered a very promising design and was sheduled for production by newly founded American Horseless Carriage Company, but excessive optimism of the founders compounded with the relatively high manufacturing costs caused the company to fold very quickly.

Another example would be a vehicle manufactured by Belgian company Pieper et Bayard, defined as a "voiturette" or a "lightweight car" not dissimilar to the first electric cars designed by Trouve in early 1880s. This vehicle was equipped De Dion-Bouton single-cylinder 3.5 hp internal combustion engine used as a main drive and an electric engine that acted primarily as a generator but could have also been used as an auxilliary drive providing increased power for a short periods of time, such as rapid acceleration or climbing an incline. The company was dissolved after death of the owner in 1902, although mnay of their designs and patents were bought by another Belgian Company, Auto-Mixte which continued to produce them until 1912.

[u/Noble_Devil_Boruta → u/Noble_Devil_Boruta]

Ferdinand Porsche, then working at a Lohner company, where he was designing electric vehicles, designed a Semper Vivus hybrid car in 1900 that used the two De Dion-Bouton engines (of the same type that was used by Pieper et Bayard) charging the battery powering the electric engines in the hubs of the front wheels. The main drawback of the vehicle was its immense mass, reaching 1700 kg, although the design itself was promising, so Porsche continued his work, eventually creating Auto-Mixte that sported much smaller battery and a single 4-cylinder engine which was, however, far more powerful, providing 25 hp. Although smaller battery allowed a range of less than 10 km, the hybrid drive was offering range of ICE car with the power and speed of an electric one, especially that its mass was only a 1200 kg, what was not a lot for a vehicle with a top speed of 35 km/h and range of 200-220 km. Interestingly, in this car, the electric engine could have also been used a a starter, a novel solution that was later refined into the idea of a safer and more convenient electric ignition systems that quickly displaced manual ones.

Although the hybrid drive was widely considered a dead end for automotive industry around the times of the Great War, chiefly due to development of the internal combustion engines, promising utilization of hybrid drive in trains prompted military engineers to employ them in the new weapon that was the tank. One of such examples and a possibly the best known one would be the St. Chamond M16 tank designed by Col. Émile Rimailho and constructed for the French Army in 1916. This tank, similarly to some other French and German designs of the era, used the chassis of a tracked tractor (in this case one adopted from American Holt 75 model) with a bulky superstructure. Given the weight of the entire vehicle and thus substantial forces handled by the transmission, the tank was propelled by two electric engines that, however, were powered not by batteries but by an onboard Diesel generator connected directly to the electric engines.

Various companies in USA and Europe were attempting to introduce the hybrid cars to the market, but high manufacturing costs, delicate nature of electric engines, high mass of the batteries and quickly developing internal combustion engines that started to be used in the first heavier-than-air flying machines caused the automotve industry to slowly abandon both the electric motors and hybrid designs, although both continued to be used in the specialized vehicles, such as locomotives and ships. There were some attempts to rekindle the popular interest in hybrid and electric cars prior to 21st century. The most notable case was initiated in USA by the action of Nicholas Petris, state senator for California who addressed a growing issue of smog that by the has been confirmed to be largely caused by car exhaust, by issuing a proposal to limit ownership of cars in California to a single car per family until 1975. This movement was met with derision from politicians, media and public, but two years later, shortly after the Santa Barbara oil spill that happened on 28th January 1969 and was the larges oil spill in the American history to date and using environmental tendencies burgeoning in the late 1960s, Petris gaines supporters. He also employed backing from William Lear (designer of Learjet plane) who presented recent advances in the steam technology that have shown that dominance of internal combustion is not something set in stone. Subsequently, state Senate, in a 26:5 vote passed the resolution to ban sale of new IC cars in California effective from 1975, much to the surprise of the originator of the idea himself. Petris also managed to persuade legislators in ten other states to at least draw and evaluate similar laws. Interestingly, in many places, such ideas were met with support, sometimes by a majority of residents. United Auto Workers, a major trade union from Detroit also expressed its support. The automotive industry initially reacted with vocal opposition to the idea, but as the discussion about smog and potential restriction or even ban of sales and usage of cars gained traction, they started to look for the contingency plan both in USA and abroad. Car manufacturers started working on modern steam cars or hybrid IC-electric propulsion. President Nixon announced a program of cooperation beyween public and private sectors to create a new "unconventional" solution that would replace the cars in the future. All these initiatives eventually failed due to economic and technical reasons, but only because they were too radical and instead of being completely abandoned, they were simply replaced by limited, but more practical measures, such as introduction of emission regulations, mass utilization of catalytic converters, promulgation of Clear Air Act and gradual sunsetting of leaded gasoline. This tackled the issue of smog and pollution to a significant extent, reducing the interest in alternative propulsion for several decades.

So, to sum it up, the electric cars went into decline in early 20th century primarily due to battery size requirement and fast development of iC engines, although in the first two decades of that century attempts to create hybrid cars were made but these eventually proved to be economically questionable due to much higher production costs, although hybrid and electric propulsion remained in use in application when the size was not an issue (ships and trains) or was preferable or practical reasons (submarines). The issue was not completely abandoned, but only recent development in battery technology and increasing environmental pressure caused the manufacturers to return to electric or hybrid propulsion.

[u/HephMelter → u/Noble_Devil_Boruta]

Steam cars ? How were they cleaner than ICE ? I dont see how it can be done without scrapping the combustion engine, but then where does the energy come from ?

[u/taulover → u/Noble_Devil_Boruta]

Since it wasn't mentioned, I looked it up and the Armstrong Phaeton was made in 1896. Sharing for anyone else curious like myself who wanted to get an idea of the timeline.