He was already attending classes at the Imperial Polytechnical College in Reichenberg (Czech: Liberec, some 5 km (3 mi) from his home)[4] at night, while still helping his father in his workshop by day.

In 1893, thanks to a referral, Porsche landed a job with the Béla Egger & Co. Electrical company in Vienna (later Brown Boveri,[4] now ABB), and moved there, at the young age of 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.

Despite Porsche having had mostly on-the-job learning, and very limited formal engineering education, Jacob Lohner employed him to develop an electric powertrain for his coaches.

[6][7] Porsche's prototype car boasted a low-friction drivetrain, due to the hub-mounted electric motors directly driving the wheels.

Hart asked for significant modifications; his vehicle was to be capable of running on petrol as well as electricity, of carrying four passengers, and of employing four-wheel drive.

On November 6–9, 1900, the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland sponsored an electric vehicle endurance trial, in which the four-wheel drive Lohner–Porsche was one of 11 entrants—one of three entrants Hart brought to the Chislehurst starting line.

Lohner-Werke manufactured rear-drive double-decker buses for Berlin and front-drive fire engines for the cities of Vienna, Frankfurt, and London.

According to a biography by Andreas Stieniczka, the funeral coach for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose murder in Sarajevo was the event which sparked off World War I, was manufactured by Lohner-Werke.