The first Porsche car ever made has been unveiled at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, having been unearthed from an Austrian shed.

The timing of the P1's unveiled couldn't be better, coinciding with Porsche's new hybrid supercar

The 116-year-old all-electric vehicle is one of the earliest European motorcars, designed in 1898 by the 22-year-old Ferdinand Porsche.

Resembling a horse-drawn carriage, it was made for carmaker Jacob Lohner, and is officially titled the Egger-Lohner C2 Phaeton.

However, the ambitious Porsche has marked many of the parts with "P1" to show his prowess in making the revolutionary vehicle.

Lohner had first approached Porsche after visiting the US, asking him to invent an electric drivetrain to replace the horse-drawn carriage, whose era was soon to be ending.  

Lohner's original idea had been to install the motor between the front wheels with rear-wheel steering, but Porsche saw fit to place the motor between the rear wheels with a steering wheel at the front - a far more stable choice.

Boasting a riotous five brake horsepower (at a stretch) octagonal electric engine, the car could reach blistering speeds of 35 kilometres per hour. In 1899, it was entered into a race for both electric and combustion engined vehicles, which Ferdinand Porsche won with three passengers aboard.

Porsche's timing couldn't be better, with its new 918 Spyder - a hybrid supercar that plugs into the mains to recharge - recently launched.

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