The Lanchester petrol-electric car is a prototype motor vehicle, designed in 1927 by Frederick W. Lanchester of the

Lanchester Motor Company The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer located until early 1931 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, and afterwards at Sandy Lane, Coventry England. The marque has been unused since the last Lanche ...

in his workshop in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, England. It is now on display in

Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum Thinktank, Birmingham (formerly known as simply Thinktank) is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it is part of Birmingham Museums Trust and is located within the Millennium Point complex on Curzon Street, Digbeth. Hi ...

.Accession number: 1961S01404 The term "petrol-electric" denotes that the car was a hybrid vehicle, with both a

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ' ...

, at the rear, and an

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

. The latter was used for starting, reversing, and when extra power was needed, for example for climbing hills. When travelling at speed, under petrol power, the electric motor acted as a generator, charging the

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

. The car has no clutch or

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

. The body and suspension are both made of wood. The design never went into production. After it had been driven for only , Lanchester abandoned the project.

References

{{Thinktank, Birmingham Experimental vehicles Prototypes Hybrid vehicles 1927 in science 1927 in England