Electric motor were quiet and clean, internal combustion engines were noisy and smoky. He was certain the public would agree.
In 1898, Lohner hired Porsche to work for him in his newly formed car manufacturing department. Porsche proved to be the bright young star that Lohner had hoped him to be. But Porsche also cost Lohner a lot of money since he liked to build many different prototypes. By the autumn of 1899, Porsche had settled on one of the designs. Lohner and Porsche displayed their first electnc car at the 1900 Worid Exhibition in Paris. Arc lights lit the entire exhibition, which featured an Electricity Palace. The car exhibition was extremely popular. Twenty-five years old Porsche's first car was the 1900 Lohner-Porsche.
The car had two forward speeds low and high. At low speed, the car traveled at 11 MPH. At high speed, the car could go 23 MPH. For racing purposes, mechanics could adjust the car to travel at 37 MPH. Already, Porsche was thinking about auto racing.
Though Porsche was known for his intense work habits, he was not totally devoted to the automobile. Porsche also had strong family ties and took care of his parents, brothers and sisters. He even treated close friends as family.
While in Vienna, Porsche met Aloisia Johanna Kaes, who worked as a bookkeeper at an electrical plant. She was interested in cars and often attended motor races. When Porsche and Kaes married, they looked forward to the future together and planned to start a family.
After the war, Porsche resumed his auto design work In 1922, he built his first small car, the Sascha, which had four cylinders and a top speed of 89 MPH. Porsche now turned his attention to building faster cars. He wanted to make Daimler's Austrian factory famous through auto racing, but the boar of directors did not share his view. They saw auto racing as expensive and dangerous. Frustrated Porsche decided to join the Daimler branch in Stuttgart, Germany. There, Porsche's ambitions were met favorably.
In nine months, he developed a supercharged car for Mercedes, which was part of Daimler. In 1924, Porsche sent the supercharged Mercedes to the world-famous Targa Florio race in Sicily. The Italian Alfa Romeos had dominated the four-lap race for years. Again, racing experts favored the Alfa Romeos to win. Porsche's supercharged Mercedes was too fast. It finished in record time averaging 41 MPH. Ferdinand Porsche was there to receive the winning prize.