The first Porsche ever built - an electric Phaeton - was unveiled in Stuttgart, Germany, on Monday. It had been sitting in an old shed in Austria since 1902.

The car is, officially, the 1889 Egger-Lohner electric car model C.2 Phaeton-known as P1, signifying Ferdinand Porsche's first design.

Porsche, who founded the namesake sports-car company in 1948, developed the vehicle while working for car builder Jacob Lohner. Porsche had been assigned to come up with an electric drive train.

It was a rear-mounted, three-horsepower electric, capable of just topping 20 mph and going about 50 miles on a charge.

Phaeton (in mythology, son of the god Eos) refers to an open car with front and back seats, similar to the horse-drawn carriages of a previous age.

The Associated Press