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Sunday, August 16, 2009

How Hybrid Cars Work

By Anton Rowd

The Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is quite the technological wonder. As a work in progress, the Hybrid Electric Vehicle technology has done much to improve the gas-dependence situation and has saved several households and individuals from having to spend so much on fossil fuels.

What is it under the hybrid car hood that is creating all these raving reviews that seem to take consumers by the neck and lead them to their nearest hybrid car dealer? Let's try to take a look at just how hybrid cars work.

The Combination

The secret is in the term, "hybrid." A hybrid car basically just brings out and maximizes all that fuel economy and consumption and electrical power can do together. By putting together both a gas engine and an electrical motor, the combination permits the car to go back and forth between the energy sources. The usual case in a hybrid car though is that it really depends basically on the battery and electrical motors to run the whole vehicle.

So what is the gas for? Well, the vehicle will still need fuel to run a motor that charges the battery which in turn runs the whole car. But the beauty of this set up is that not much fuel is needed to charge up those batteries; thus, hybrid cars really only need so much fuel to fill their significantly smaller gas tanks and therefore it saves people from having to spend so much money on gas.

Going The Distance

In order to actually see how a hybrid car works, one would have to take one for a spin on a full tank and compare the results in mileage with a car that runs only on gas. One will definitely see the huge difference in cars dependent on electric motors. Going a great distance is achieved by the way the hybrid works. There are 3 essential technologies that allow this to happen.

The first technology in hybrid cars is known as the regenerative braking. This includes an electric engine that applies resistance to the drive train which, in turn, causes the wheels to stop or to slow down. The energy from the wheels turns the engine which in real time acts as a generator and transforms the energy wasted during coasting and braking into electricity. This electricity is then reserved and stored in the battery until it is required by other functions in the electric motor.

The next technology used in hybrid cars is the elect motor assist. This elect motor assist provides extra power to help the motor in acceleration like ascending elevated terrains or speeding up. Smaller engines are used which is more efficient compared to when internal combustion engine is used.

Another technology that is starting to pick up in a lot of modern hybrid vehicles is known simply as automatic start and shutdown. When a hybrid vehicle stops in the middle of traffic or at a stoplight, the whole engine will shutdown as well. This prevents the engine from wasting energy and fuel from just being idle. And when the accelerator is pressed again, the engine will automatically start up so that acceleration is made available. It's a nifty option that has gained popularity from city street drivers. Combine these three technologies and this is essentially how hybrid cars work. - 21396

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