He is best known for creating the first gasoline–electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner–Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Auto Union racing cars, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, and several other important developments and Porsche automobiles.

An important contributor to the German war effort during World War II,[1] Porsche was involved in the production of advanced tanks such as the VK 45.01 (P), the Elefant (initially called "Ferdinand") self-propelled gun, and the Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank, as well as other weapon systems, including the V-1 flying bomb.

He was already attending classes at the Imperial Polytechnical College in Reichenberg (Czech: Liberec - some 5 km (3 mi) from his home)[8] at night, while still helping his father in his mechanical shop by day.

Thanks to a referral, Porsche landed a job with the Béla Egger & Co. Electrical company in Vienna (later Brown Boveri,[8] now ABB), and moved there in 1893, at age 18.

During his five years with Béla Egger, he built their first electric wheel-hub motor, the concept for which had been developed by American inventor Wellington Adams, and Porsche also raced it, in 1897.

[11][12] In 1897[8] or 1898, Porsche joined the Vienna-based factory Jakob Lohner & Company, which produced coaches for Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria as well as for the monarchs of the UK, Sweden, and Romania.

This drivetrain construction was easily expanded to four-wheel drive, by mounting two more electric motors to the rear wheels, and a four-motor example was ordered by Englishman E. W. Hart in 1900.

Though it "showed wonderful speed when it was allowed to sprint",[citation needed] the weight of the batteries rendered it slow to climb hills.

Since sufficiently reliable gears and couplings were not available at the time, he chose to make it a series-hybrid, an arrangement now more common in diesel–electric or turbo-electric railway locomotives than in automobiles.

He served as a chauffeur to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination has been credited with contributing to the start of WWI.

Porsche had advanced to managing director by 1916 and received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology in 1916: the title "Dr. Ing.

A few months later Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft hired Porsche to serve as Technical Director in Stuttgart, Germany, which was already a major center for the German automotive industry.

In 1926, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie merged into Daimler-Benz, with their joint products beginning to be called Mercedes-Benz.

As the business grew, Porsche decided to work on his own design as well, which was a development of the small car concept from his days at Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart.

The main regulation of this formula was that the weight of the car without driver, fuel, oil, water and tires was not allowed to exceed 750 kg (1,650 lb).

He was released, by the goodwill of a colleague, Hans Baron Veyder Mahlberg who bribed Gestapo agents, but he was forced to leave Germany immediately.

The suit was interrupted by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia: several years after World War II Volkswagen paid a settlement.

[23] As the war progressed his proposed solutions to new developments became more complex and he gained a reputation in certain circles as a "mad scientist" especially with Albert Speer (mainly due to his newfound affinity for "pointy" designs).

[24] A new city, "Stadt des KdF-Wagens" was founded near Fallersleben for the Volkswagen factory, but wartime production concentrated almost exclusively on the military Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen variants.

This highly annoyed Mercedes, who had already developed their Mercedes-Benz W25, and resulted in a heated exchange both on and off the racing track between the two companies for the period until World War II.

Having obtained state funds, Auto Union bought Hochleistungs Motor GmbH and hence the P-Wagen Project for 75,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁, relocating the company to Chemnitz.

Ninety chassis that had already been built were converted into self-propelled anti-tank guns; these were put into service in 1943 as the Panzerjäger Tiger (P) and known by the nickname "Ferdinand".

[26] In November 1945, Porsche was asked to continue the design of the Volkswagen in France and to move the factory equipment there as part of war reparations.

[27] While his father was in captivity, Ferry worked diligently to keep the company in business, developing a division for the repair of automobiles, water pumps, and winches.

In the Porsche family's own account, the affair was a thinly-veiled attempt at extorting money and forcing them to collaborate with Renault.

The post-war French government required a payment of one million francs, variously described as ransom or bail, for the release of Piëch and Porsche.

Porsche spent his visit chatting with Volkswagen president Heinrich Nordhoff about the future of VW Beetles, which were already being produced in large numbers.

[33] In 1996, Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 1999 posthumously won the award of Car Engineer of the Century.

[2] Following protests from local World War II survivors that Porsche's birthplace Maffersdorf in Austrian Bohemia, now Czech Vratislavice nad Nisou, was promoting Nazism by displaying signs commemorating its native son, in 2013 the town authorities removed the signs and changed the content of a local exhibition so that it would cover not only his automotive achievements, but also his Nazi party and SS membership, and the importance of his work for the Nazi war cause.