An Owen Magnetic at Southward Car Museum. Photo / David Haxton

One of Southward Car Museum's latest displays is one of the world's first hybrid cars dating back over 100 years.

It's also a car that was well before its time and still has people scratching their heads about how to drive it.

Museum assistant manager John Bellamore said the Owen Magnetic, which the museum had acquired from Hawke's Bay, had been in storage for years but was now on display to explain to people how an earlier hybrid car worked.

The car, built in 1918, had a six-cylinder petrol motor that powered an extremely heavy electric motor generator.

"You're best to go onto Jay Leno's website where he explains the running of it."

Seven hundred Owen Magnetics, a hybrid electric luxury car, was produced by RM Owen and Co, in New York, between 1915 and 1922.

Leno, speaking on his Jay Leno's Garage web/television show, has lovingly restored an Owen Magnetic which was built in 1916.

"It's probably the most unusual car I've had.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone that has ever heard of it or any idea what it is.

"It's called the car of a thousand speeds but it's still a bigger mystery now as it was back then.

"If you got in this car without some prior knowledge, I don't think you'd know how to drive it or even start it."

While there were electric cars in the late 1800s, battery technology wasn't good and you couldn't drive far, he said.

Enter the Owen Magnetic where you could get "high mileage with electricity powering the vehicle".

The electric transmission was developed by Justus Entz who built the first car in 1897 and patented the technology in 1900.

"I've had a few electrical engineers look at this thing and they're just blown away by it."

An Owen Magnetic was "an electric car powered by a gasoline engine".

"There's no mechanical connection between the engine and the rest of the drive train.

"The gasoline engine is separate and what you have is almost like a flywheel.

"Think of a horseshoe magnet going around an armature creating electricity — that's what powers this car.

"You know when you put two polar opposite magnets together and they sort of fight each other, that's what it feels like going down the road.

"There's no crunching of gears which was seen as a huge advantage back in the day because a lot of people couldn't drive a stick shift or the clutch was too heavy.

"With this car you just move a lever [on the steering wheel] and go from one quadrant to another [for speed and braking]."

The smooth-running car would have been appealing to customers when it hit the market but many would have been put off by the price tag.

"The trouble with this car was that it was so expensive.

"This was US$9000 to build which was a lot of money in 1916.

"And a Model T was only a few hundred dollars."

Leno said he drove his Owen Magnetic "everywhere in the summer".

"It doesn't overheat and it runs fine."

An Owen Magnetic was "unique and complicated" but overall a "fascinating automobile".