How Hybrid Cars Work

Hybrid Cars integrate the power of the conventional gasoline engine with that of an electric motor. A high powered battery pack provides energy to the motor which itself gets recharged when the car is decelerating. This is called as regenerative braking. The gas engine can also assist the battery in recharging. This kills the need to plug the car to an external source of energy.

As of now, there are two types of hybrid vehicles.

In one type, the electric motor acts as a side-kick to the gas engine, assisting it whenever surplus power is needed. The electric motor alone is incapable of independently operating the vehicle. Honda's Power Assist technology in its hybrids, Civic and Insight is an example. Such vehicles are termed as Mild Hybrids. In mild hybrids, the gasoline engine provides the main source of power, and the electric motor provides additional power whenever needed.

The second type of hybrid can be termed as a Full Hybrid, where the gasoline engine and the electric motor can operate the vehicle saperately. In this type, the electric motor can drive the vehicle at lower speeds. In need of more speed, the gasoline engine kicks in. The Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape implement the same techonology.

Be it mild hybrids or full hybrids, both are capable of providing lower emissions and better fuel efficiency.

The Internal-Combustion Engines (both gasoline and diesel) installed in Hybrid cars are often smaller than those in normal cars for a simple reason that Hybrids have the electric motor for assistance.

The motor can take care of city travel which poses stop and go conditions as well as power-consuming add-ons such as the A/C or power-windows and power-steering. At high speeds, the gasoline engine supplies power. This switching of power sources is computer controled and nothing needs to be manually done.

Power to the electric motor comes from the battery-pack. Recharging of the battery is automatic and need not be done by external sources. When the car is in uniform motion or when it is decelerating, it generates power which charges the batteries which utilises the valuable kinetic energy.

As with any other battery, the Hybrid car battery also has a limited life span. Auto makers however, put the battery life at around 200,000 miles which roughly comes around to 7-8 years, depending on the kind of travel it endures. Thus, It pays to take extra care of your vehicle and travel when necessary.

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