To understand hybrids, we must first go back 14 billion years, to precisely three minutes after the Big Bang. Since those first few moments, matter has been mingling, bonding, binding and fusing into hybrids – at first to form atoms, then elements and compounds and the building blocks of life as we know it. In other words, hybrids are as old as time itself.
Of course, when you think of hybrids today you’re more likely to picture a car than some chemical reaction in the nuclear fires of a supernova, but still, the principle is the same. Sometimes, two things simply work better together. Petrol and electricity, for example. Or gin and tonic.
In fact, hybrids are all around us, and even inside of us. Everybody knows that humans are 60 per cent water, which of course is a hybrid. Look around and you’ll see hybrids absolutely everywhere, from farmer’s fields to far-flung forests, from test tubes to test tracks. And, as you’re about to see, some of them even changed the world…
Toyota Prius
Believe it or not it’s over 20 years since Toyota launched the Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle and one of the most important cars of all time, up there with the Ford Model T, the original Mini and the McLaren F1. When it first came along, even the iPhone was still ten years away, and few thought that – one day – even supercars would be fuelled by a mixture of petrol and batteries. Today, a world without hybrids seems unthinkable, and the Prius, now in its fourth generation, has sold over four million units.
Centaur
Possibly the most famous of all mythological beasts, these half-human, half-horse hybrids were said to worship the God of Wine, which may explain their reputation as boisterous, hoofy drunkards. The story goes that Centaurs were dreamed up by the Ancient Greeks, probably as a reaction to their first encounters with nomads on horseback, who from a distance looked like an all-in-one horse and jockey combo with an outside chance in the 4.10 at Kempton.
Range Rover PHEV
The Range Rover is already a pretty effortlessly cool car, capable of looking right at home whether it’s knee deep in mud in the Shropshire countryside or polished and buffed outside a trendy London nightclub. The latest model, though, blends this rugged go-anywhere ability with some serious eco credentials thanks to its plug-in hybrid drivetrain.
Pizzly Bear
They’ve been romping in zoos since the Eighties, but polar bears and grizzlies rarely meet in the wild, let alone produce crossbreed cubs. In fact, with only a handful of sightings, few believed that pizzly bears existed at all outside of captivity, until somebody shot one in 2006. DNA tests confirmed it was a hybrid: white like a polar bear but with the face of a grizzly, along with brown paws and big claws. Nobody knows for sure what’s bringing them together, although one theory is that climate change is causing their habitats to overlap.
LaFerrari
One of the most exclusive hypercars in the world, the Ferrari is one member of the fabled ‘big three’ hybrid supercars – alongside the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918. The Ferrari’s hybrid system takes the form of a 161bhp electric motor which boosts the 789bhp V12 engine in short bursts, giving a total of 950bhp. Performance is of course astronomical, with Ferrari claiming it’ll reach 124mph in the same time it takes a hot hatchback to hit 60.
Bloodhound SSC
Hybrid cars are as much about performance as efficiency, but even so, Bloodhound SSC, the 1,000mph car, takes things to a whole new level by combining a jet engine – the sort you’d find in a Eurofighter Typhoon – with a cluster of rockets. In all, it has about 135,000 thrust horsepower, which is more than eight times the power of all the cars on the F1 grid combined. Even the fuel is pumped by a supercharged, 550bhp V8. Just as well when you consider it’ll need 40 litres of rocket oxidiser for every second of its top speed run in South Africa next year.
Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Sport Turismo
Though the Porsche’s powertrain is of course a hybrid unit, mating an electric motor with a 2.9-litre V6 engine, the real hybrid here is how the Panamera manages to combine two cars into one. When you’re just pootling round, it’s a comfortable, spacious and easy-to-drive luxury car. When you put your foot down, though, it becomes a bona fide supercar, capable of hitting 60mph from rest in just 4.4 seconds and returning a claimed 108mpg – though not at the same time.
Water
Compounds (chemical hybrids of two or more elements) are all around us, though none are more abundant than water. The world contains around 1,260 trillion million litres of the stuff, which if spread evenly over the Earth’s surface would have a depth of 2,800 metres. Yet if you could condense it into a four-litre jug, only one tablespoon would be freshwater while the rest would be salty oceans. And get this: in a 100-year period, a single water molecule spends 98 years in the sea, 20 months locked away as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
Tree of 40 Fruit
The Tree of 40 Fruit is an arboreal artwork created by American art professor Sam Van Aken, who grafts buds from various fruit trees onto a single ‘stock’ tree. Over several years the stock tree eventually grows branches from its different donors, each bearing a unique fruit, including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries. So far he’s planted 16 of these hybrid trees in seven US states, which in springtime blossom pink, crimson and white.
Lexus LS500h
In the not-too-distant future, every car will feature hybrid or electric tech. Already though, carmakers such as Lexus and Toyota have a hybrid-electric version of almost every model in their showroom. In fact, 99 per cent of Lexus’s UK sales are petrol-electric hybrids, such as the new LS500h, an exec saloon with limo-like luxury – soothing and quiet when you need it to be, but also capable of proper performance with very low emissions. All this thanks to the world’s first multi-stage hybrid system featuring a 3.5-litre V6 working together with clever electric motors. The best of both worlds? That’s what hybrids are all about, after all.