Hybrid Cars

A few years ago, at the ripe old age of eight, I had a deep curiosity to explore anything that moves. Actually I've been like that ever since I could walk, but at the age of eight I began to research how engines work, and where fuel comes from. Once I got an explanation that satisfied me, I began to wonder if our supply of fuel will last forever, and I started to learn about other power sources. I was most interested in electric cars, but most of them have a very limited range, because the batteries do not last very long.

A few years later, when hybrid prototypes first started appearing in Popular Science, I became very interested in hybrids, and I started researching them on the internet. A hybrid engine is an engine that runs on two or more power sources. Most hybrids have a gasoline engine and an electric motor. The first gasoline-electric hybrid for sale in the United States was the Honda Insight. The Insight was introduced in 1999, and is still the hybrid that gets the best gas mileage (both city, and highway). However, the Insight was only a two-seater, and had a sci-fi sort of look to it. Toyota had also been working on a hybrid, called the Prius. The Prius is a sedan, with 5 seats, and is more traditional looking. (http://4wheeldrive.about.com/cs/buyacaronline/a/hybridcarstrucks_4.htm)

Then in 2002 Honda released a hybrid version of the Civic. This was good competition for the Prius, since it looks like a normal Civic sedan, only with a few feet less cargo room in the trunk for the battery pack. It has enough room for five people but it gets more miles on a tank of gas than the regular Civic. It is competitive with the Prius, because the Civic was already a very popular car even without the added gas mileage. (http://www.beststuff.com/articles/3877/, http://4wheeldrive.about.com/cs/buyacaronline/a/hybridcarstrucks_4.htm)

There are two types of hybrid structures. One of them is called a parallel hybrid. A parallel hybrid can have both the gasoline engine and the electric motor power the transmission at the same time. The motor can assist the engine if it is accelerating, or going up a hill. The other type of hybrid structure is a series hybrid. The engine in a series hybrid is not connected directly to the transmission. The gasoline engine in a series hybrid never directly drives the transmission. The gasoline engine is connected to a generator. The generator can do two things. It can charge the batteries or power the electric motor that drives the transmission.

( http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm)

There are also two other categories of hybrids, a full hybrid, and a mild hybrid. In a full hybrid, the vehicle can be powered by either the electric motor or the gas engine, or a combination of them both. A full hybrid is an electric car with a gasoline engine for recharging the batteries and assisting the motor during acceleration. In a full hybrid the car can be powered by the electric motor alone up to a certain speed. A full hybrid usually gets better gas mileage in city driving than it does on the highway. An example of a full hybrid would be the Prius. A mild hybrid is basically a gasoline-powered vehicle with an electric motor assist. An example of a mild hybrid would be both the Honda Civic hybrid, and the Honda Insight. Although the Insight is only a mild hybrid it still gets better gas mileage than the Prius, because it only has three cylinders.

(http://www.car-list.com/autonews/hybrid.html,http://www.autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4022502&src=msn&GT1=3391)

A hybrid car can recharge its batteries by a method called regenerative braking. When the driver presses the brake pedal, to slow down or stop, the motor turns into a generator, and converts the heat created by the brakes to generate electricity, which it then uses to charge the batteries. This is also combined with the traditional