Hybrid Cars - How Do They Work?

Unless you’ve been living in a hole, and a particularly deep hole at that, you’ve probably heard of hybrid cars. Which means you might be wondering what a hybrid is and why you should be interested.

Simply put, a hybrid is a car or any other vehicle that combines two forms of power. Technically, it would even include the nifty car and horse combinations that crop up in eastern European countries. Go ahead, Google it, but wait until after you’ve read the article, okay?

As cool as a horse driven car maybe, that’s probably not the kind of hybrid car you’re interested in. The two most popular hybrid vehicles are the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius, and these could be considered the standard for hybrid vehicles.

The biggest difference between a hybrid and a regular car, and it is a big difference, is that the motor that drives a hybrid is electric. The reason it’s called a hybrid and not simply an electric car is because the electric motor is powered by electricity generated by a gas powered generator.

Initially, this may just seem like another step in the process, making things more complex. But it actually serves a purpose. By using the generator (and batteries) to power an electric motor, the system avoids having to have an engine that runs constantly. Basically, the motor only uses power when it needs.

In a regular car, the engine runs constantly, and uses gas all the time it runs. So even though you don’t accelerate going down hills most of the time, or going into curves, the engine keeps on plugging and using up gas. And gas, as you surely know, is money.

Commercial hybrids also use a number of techniques to increase their efficiency, which further increases fuel economy. Some of these, like using advanced composites to reduce the weight of the car, could be used on any vehicle. Others will only work with cars that use electric motors, like regenerative braking.

Regenerative braking means that the car captures the friction you use to stop your car to actually recharge the batteries. So not only are you not wasting gas while braking, you’re also keeping some of energy you used to go faster to begin with.

If you’re not keen on getting a small hybrid, and most of the readily available ones are compact cars because of the weight issue, you can get an aftermarket kit that will convert any car into a hybrid. You won’t get all the benefits of a car specifically designed for it, but you will still get to drive your classic Mustang while saving gas.