How Hybrids Work
I’m sure you’ve heard it all before: hybrids are energy-efficient, help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by cars, and will help you save money on gas. Yet, it seems that some of us don’t buy it, quite literally. Many of us cling to what we’re used to, praying to believe the myths that say things like, “A Hummer is more efficient than a hybrid because of the energy put into making its battery.” False, false, false. This myth actually originated from an article that has since been retracted because it was based off of irrelevant data.
A normal gas-powered car can travel very far and fast without refueling, but it is harmful for the environment and will get relatively poor mileage. A pure electric car, however, can’t travel very fast or can’t go very far, yet it is clean and uses no gasoline. The concept behind the hybrid is that it takes the better aspects of both types to create a useful and efficient car.
A car that normally gets 25-30 mpg could get 40-50 mpg. How does this happen? In a parallel hybrid, the electric motor adds power to the gasoline motor to reduce the amount of gas used. When you “put on the brakes”, the battery for the motor actually can recharge because the motor reverses its system and acts as a generator that pulls energy from the speed of the car. In a series hybrid, the gasoline motor never actually directly powers the wheels and instead only powers the generator that helps the electric motor.
In either case, the engine is much smaller, and this is a key ingredient in the efficiency of hybrids. A smaller engine means less weight (and many hybrids are made of lighter, not to say less sturdy, materials than the average car), which means less energy getting up to speed. Also, a smaller engine is more likely to get to a point where it is being used to its full potential, comparable to how it is better to do full loads of laundry.
For more information on the specific hybrids available, visit our sister site Gas Pedal Addicts. For further reading on hybrids, I would suggest the articles on How Stuff Works.
