Porsche at the Los Angeles Auto Show Committed to Alternative Drive Systems

• Cayenne Hybrid and Historical Electric Car at Leading Trend Show in California

Lohner-Porsche from the year 1900

Stuttgart/Los Angeles - Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is presenting drive concepts particularly friendly to the environment at the Los Angeles Auto Show starting on November 16, 2007: The highlight of this leading event at the Los Angeles Convention Center is of course the first appearance of the innovative Cayenne Hybrid in America.

At the same time Porsche is also presenting a milestone in automobile development to the well-informed public attending the most significant trend show in North America with their great knowledge of history and technical development over the years: The electric-drive Lohner-Porsche from the year 1900, one of the world’s first zero emission vehicles and, accordingly, a forerunner for hybrid drive.

With its future-oriented electric motors in the wheel hubs, the Lohner-Porsche was acknowledged as the absolute sensation at the Paris World Fair in 1900. On loan from the Technical Museum in Vienna, Austria, this outstanding achievement in technology protected today as a universal monument is now to be seen the first time outside of Europe at an auto show.

It was this vehicle, Ferdinand Porsche’s first major project completed at the time without layshafts and without a transmission that gave the 24-year-old automobile genius his breakthrough as a pioneer in the history of the automobile. Shortly thereafter Ferdinand Porsche added a combustion engine providing power for the electric generator to the electric drive system with two internal-pole motors in the front wheels. This made Porsche’s hybrid drive ready for production and created a unique highlight at the Paris Auto Show in 1901.