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California Governor Visits Porsche Stand at LA Auto Show to See 108-Year-Old Electric Car

LOS ANGELES--California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today visited the Porsche stand at the Los Angeles Auto Show to see the world’s first advanced electric car, a 108-year-old vehicle that led to the first hybrid car that were both developed by Ferdinand Porsche at the turn of the century. Ironically, this technical marvel was developed and built in Austria, the birthplace of the Governor.

The Governor was greeted by Porsche AG’s Chief Engineer, Wolfgang Duerheimer, who explained that the Lohner-Porsche, as it was called, was the first advanced electric car and the technological star of the 1900 Paris Auto Show. Ferdinand Porsche soon after developed the world’s first hybrid automobile when he added a combustion engine to recharge the electric car’s batteries.

This was the first time the Lohner-Porsche had ever been shown outside of Europe.

“The fact we do this in California is as timely as it is appropriate,” said Duerheimer. “After all, much of the drive of zero-emission automobiles gets its momentum from this state and its governor, who happens to come from the same country, Austria, as this Lohner-Porsche.”

This early “green” car was shown along side Porsche’s new modern Cayenne Hybrid, which debuted in the United States at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The Cayenne Hybrid will be available in the Porsche line up by the end of the decade and uses a unique “parallel” full hybrid system that will reduce fuel consumption by approximately 33 percent from the normal V6 Cayenne model being sold today. Gov. Schwarzenegger, guided by Duerheimer, studied the Cayenne’s advanced hybrid system in a special “see-through” model that is also on display at the LA show.