Hybrid Overview
The hybrid motor has evolved slowly over the past one hundred years and has finally emerged as the current champion in our quest for conservation of fossil fuel and responsible stewardship of the earth and it's limited resources.
More to the point, people abhor paying the high cost of gasoline and consumers see a better choice in the hybrid car. Consumers are being hit where it hurts most, in the wallet. We've become conscious of the need to reduce fuel consumption and break loose from our dependence on foreign oil.
The hybrid motor's time has arrived as the U.S. Congress is enacting laws to place caps on carbon emissions and reduce them 80% by the year 2050.
Gasoline and diesel motors can't hope to measure up to that standard. By the combustion engine design, spent fuel is released into the environment and pollution is the byproduct. A better solution lies in the hybrid motor.
What is this hybrid motor? A hybrid motor is a vehicle that uses two sources of power for propulsion.
A hybrid motor (for automobiles) uses a combination of both a gasoline engine and an electric motor to propel the vehicle. By combining these two energy sources, a smaller gasoline engine can be used. This advanced engine gives off fewer emissions and works with the electric motor to supply power to the car.
Why don't we use electric cars?
Electric cars don't pollute, but they're not efficient for the way consumers drive. They are very limited in their range of miles and the batteries have to be recharged at 100 miles or less.
Electric motors don't have the high-energy power ratio found in gasoline engines and don't perform as well as gasoline engines particularly in acceleration.
Hybrid cars have acceleration and performance capability that consumers normally expect from an automobile and the batteries do not have to be recharged.
Gasoline Hybrids
In parallel hybrid motors the gas is supplied to the engine and the batteries supply power to the electric motor. Both engine and electric motor supply power for the transmission.
Series hybrid: The gasoline engine turns a generator instead of the transmission. The generator can power the batteries or the electric motor that powers the transmission. Further, the electric motor can act as a motor or a generator drawing power or returning power to the batteries.
The Toyota Prius, now in it's tenth year, uses a highly sophisticated system called a split power device that joins the gasoline engine, the generator and the electric motor together in a planetary gear system. This allows the hybrid to act like a parallel hybrid or a series hybrid.
Diesel Hybrids
Diesel motors surpass the gasoline engine efficiency by 25 to 35 percent in mpg according to Charlie Freese at GM Powertrain. General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Ford are developing diesel hybrid motors and believe they will overtake the gasoline/electric motor hybrid in efficiency and performance.
Currently, diesel hybrid technology is used in large vehicles such as trucks and buses. However, DaimlerChrysler recently produced a hybrid diesel, the Dodge Ram pickup truck that is expected to obtain 30 mpg. Think of the possibilities for smaller vehicles.
The benefits of hybrid cars are indisputable. They provide greater fuel efficiency with fewer emissions and the automobile performance is good. The batteries don't need recharging and will last about ten years.
Hybrid vehicles have a long history dating back to the early nineteen hundreds. Electric cars go back even farther to the early eighteen hundreds. Our love affair with the gasoline engine is coming to an end as we find ourselves squeezed by high fuel prices and our need for foreign oil.
Automotive research and development engineers continue to search for a better balance in fuel consumption, and emissions control, while other automotive technologies are emerging. Hybrid motors is one method of striking this balance.
Source:
www.hybridcars.com/history/history-of-hybrid-vehicles.html
