Why buy a hybrid vehicle when petroleum-based fuels are perfectly suited for internal combustion engine technology? After all petroleum has powered most automobiles and trucks for over one hundred years. Burning fossil fuels for over a century however has done some severe damage to the ecology of the planet.
We now have the electric vehicle with lower emissions, but correspondingly lower power. At long last, both technologies have been united in hybrid vehicles better known as hybrid electric vehicles or HEVs.
Current hybrid vehicles are fitted out with both gas internal combustion engines and electric motors. The gas engine produces power through small and constant controlled detonations that force pistons, which turn a rotating crankshaft. The power produced by the rotation crankshaft is channeled through a number of components and finally spins the vehicle’s wheels. The electric motor is powered by a battery which creates energy through a chemical reaction. The battery is constantly recharged by a generator that is powered by the internal combustion engine.
Hybrid vehicles are of series or parallel design, or even combination of the two.
In the parallel design vehicles, the electric propulsion system and the energy conversion unit are linked up directly to the vehicle’s wheels. The gas engine is used for highway driving and the electric motor acts an aid and provides supplemental power for acceleration, hill climbing, and other situations that call for more power.
In series design vehicles, the gas engine is linked up to an electricity-producing generator. This electrical energy is applied to power an electric motor, which in turn powers the vehicle’s wheels. Hybrid vehicles can also be configured to use the series configuration at low speeds, and the parallel configuration for acceleration and highway driving.
Braking in conventional vehicles produces heat but this energy is wasted. Some hybrid vehicles convert this energy to electricity and use it to help propel the vehicle. This process is known as regenerative braking and adds to the overall efficiency of the vehicle.
Other hybrid vehicles prolong the life of the car’s on-board battery system by utilizing ultracapacitors. The ultracapacitor is more efficient than a battery for capturing the energy from regenerative braking and using it for initial acceleration.
A lot of consumers aren’t don’t just want to know that hybrid cars attain superior fuel economy and decreased emissions, but also are also interested in how they work. Three chief components are integrated to make a hybrid vehicle: an internal combustion gas engine, an electric motor and a high-powered battery. A process called regenerative braking is used to capture energy and charge the battery.
This is energy that would normally be wasted during coasting or slowing down. The hybrid car battery, which is continuously recharged through this process, provides power to the electric motor. If necessary, power from the gas engine can also be diverted to charge the hybrid battery. These charging strategies create an electrical power system that never needs plugging in to an external source for charging.
Those are the fundamentals of hybrid cars in general. We’ll split up hybrids into two classes to analyze further how the three components work together. Each class of hybrids incorporates the three components in its own way.
Mild Hybrids
In the mild hybrid configuration, the electric motor is not able to function independently of the gas internal combustion engine. The hybrid vehicle is powered mainly by the gas engine, and the electric motor just provides auxiliary power to assist when required. The electric motor is capable of drawing energy from the battery or generating electricity to charge the battery, but it isn’t capable of doing both at the same time. The Honda Civic and Insight are mild hybrid cars.
Full Hybrids
Full hybrid cars integrate the three components in a way that permits the electric motor and the gas engine to work independently of each other. For example, the electric motor is capable of functioning on its own to allow for light acceleration at low speeds. The gas engine then gets going up and takes over at higher speeds.
Both the electric motor and gas engine can operate in tandem when more power is called for during hard acceleration, such as when climbing hills. Full hybrids are also able to draw energy from the battery and charge it simultaneously. The Toyota Prius and Ford Escape are full hybrids.
Notwithstanding their differences, both kinds of hybrid cars achieve the aim of enhanced fuel economy and decreased emissions over normal gas or diesel powered
