Article by Jim Hemig
Professor Ferdinand Porsche is well known for the quote, “I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.” But apparently before Porsche was building the sports car of his dreams, he built one of the very first electric bicycles.
A website for the fahrTraum museum in Mattsee, Austria (just outside Salzburg), that honors Ferdinand Porsche, posted Porsche’s engineering history and interestingly rents e-bikes for rides around town. Why e-bikes? Well, when Ferdinand was 18 years old, he built an e-bike to get from work to school, the website explained.
Here is an excerpt:
“He invented the first e-bike out of necessity. In 1893, he started his first job as a mechanic at the Bela Egger United Electricity Company in Vienna. After work, he ran to the Technical University and listened to the lectures on electricity as a “sneak listener” – he was not officially enrolled at the university. He had to walk the distance between home, workplace, and university. For the restless and ambitious young Porsche, this seemed to cost too much precious working time, which literally fell by the wayside. Then he discovered an old bicycle in the corner of the stairwell of his apartment. He bought the battered vehicle from its owner, repaired it, lubricated it and repainted it. To make it even faster and easier to overcome the not inconsiderable gradients in Vienna, it occurred to him to build an electric motor. Thought, done! He found an octagonal piece in the company, leftover from a test assembly, and built it onto the now shiny black bike. Ferdinand Porsche’s electric bicycle, which he called “Octagon” because of the octagonal rear wheel motor, quickly became a key topic of conversation throughout the company.”
The museum website claims Porsche was the “inventor of the first e-bike.” In 1893, that would be very early in the development of electric powered bicycles. A quick Wikipedia search shows one of the first e-bike patents awarded was in the United States in December 1895, two years after the museum’s claim of 1893. Did Porsche invent the e-bike? It is very possible. He is also recognized for building the first all-electric and first hybrid four-wheel vehicles and the first regenerating brake system. Did Ferdinand’s electric bicycle provide the inspiration for these first-ever electric cars?
It’s unbelievable to think that the first vehicle Professor Ferdinand Porsche ever created was a two-wheel electric bicycle – not a sports car for what his name is famous for today. Fittingly, this connects well today since Porsche has thrown the company into the latest electric craze with two new e-bike models as well as investing in future e-bike production.
Released in March 2021, Porsche introduced the mixed terrain eBike Cross, and the road riding eBike Sport. These pedal-assist electric bicycles are some of the most technologically advanced bikes on the road today.
Then Porsche acquired the majority stock in e-Bike manufacturer, Greyp in Croatia, later in 2021. Porsche is apparently committed to e-Bikes going forward, particularly with this statement in the press release, “In March 2021, the long-established range of bikes was expanded further: the Porsche eBike Sport and eBike Cross represent the brand’s take on exclusive electric bikes. At present, both models have almost sold out, thanks to the very positive market reaction.”
Porsche also acquired 20% of the shares in Fazua GmbH in February 2022. Fazua produces innovative e-bike drive systems. These drives were included in the 2021 Cyklaer bikes. Another Porsche e-bike effort, created by Storck bicycles in Germany and Porsche Digital.
A Porsche press release about the acquisition states, “The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer now wants to make greater use of this know-how in the attractive and fast-growing e-bike market.”
Porsche is also establishing a strategic partnership with Ponooc Investment B.V., a Dutch company that focuses on sustainable energy and mobility solutions. “Together with Ponooc, Porsche plans a joint venture to develop, manufacture and distribute a future generation of high-quality Porsche e-bikes.”
And Porsche promises more digital development along with new e-Bikes, “In the future, we will offer further digital services to enhance the cycling experience, and these will be combined into one platform,” said Florian Rothfuss, Head of Customer Innovation at Porsche Digital.
But even before the e-Bike Sport and Cross models and the Porsche Digital Cyklaer contribution, Porsche produced a prototype silver and blue e-bike. The website Bicycle Network Australia covered a Berlin based bicycle company focusing on electric bikes. The August 21, 2015 story clearly shows a Porsche Intelligent Performance themed Bike S outfitted with a thicker frame to house an electric motor.
And back in 2010, there was another Porsche electric assist prototype bike that didn’t make it to the market either. This was a one-off concept bike basically strapping a battery and electric motor to a mountain bike frame. This wasn’t even one of the current Porsche bike frames at the time. The electric hub with direct drive in the rear wheel provided up to 450W. The prototype weighed less than 35.5 pounds and had a range of 31 miles. The initial marketing plan for this bike was intended to help publicize the Cayenne Diesel Hybrid at the time.
It is interesting to find the company’s current and future direction for e-bikes can be traced back to the very beginning of Professor Porsche’s, and possibly the world’s, first electrified bicycle.