Exactly how does a "hybrid" car work?

Question

Exactly how does a "hybrid" car work?

Answer 1

See attached.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car1...

Answer 2

They work like other cars, but they run on fuel that doesn't pollute the world, and turn the sky gray.

Answer 3

The term hybrid means the combining of two different things to make one.

A hybrid car can be ANY car that uses more than one technology to power or drive it forward.  That new compressed air car could be considered a hybrid since it uses compressed air and a gas engine to power it.

There aren't just gas hybrids there are also diesel hybrids.  Then you have plug in hybrids that use gas and electricity.  Then there is the conventional gas hybrid which normally uses a gas engine for driving at high speeds and an electric motor for driving at low speeds.  It also normally incorporates a specially designed transmission so that it is more efficient called a dual mode transmission.  One mode is more for climbing hills, hauling, and accelerating and the other mode is more for regular driving.  Normally, they also incorporate features such as regenerative breaking which uses the brakes to recoup energy by turning that stopping force into electricity to charge up the car batteries.  They also normally use energy saving techniques like turning off the gas motor and powering the car with an electric motor below certain speeds.  Sometimes the electric motor isn't used to power the car forward but just to turn the gas motor back on after sitting for a while at a stoplight when the gas motor will shut off to save fuel.

Answer 4

There is, on the mainshaft, a motor-generator set, which charges a large battery when excess power is available, and helps propel the car when there is a shortage.  My Honda hybrid has a 13 hp electric motor in addition to the 85 hp gasoline engine.  A panel indicator shows the state of charge of the propulsion battery; basically, this can be ignored, as the electric system is nicely integrated into the rest of the system, and except for a slight difference in braking, it drives like any other car.

Answer 5

Have you pulled your car up to the gas pump lately and been shocked by the high price of gasoline? As the pump clicked past $20, $30, $40 or even $50, maybe you thought about trading in your car for something that gets better mileage. Or maybe you're worried that your car is contributing to the greenhouse effect.

The auto industry has the technology to address these concerns. It's the hybrid car. There are a lot of hybrid models on the market these days, and most automobile manufacturers have announced plans to manufacture their own versions.

How does a hybrid automobile work? What goes on under the hood to give you 20 or 30 more miles per gallon than the standard automobile? And does it pollute less just because it gets better gas mileage? In this article, we'll help you understand how this technology works, and we'll even give you some tips on how to drive a hybrid car for maximum efficiency.

Many people have probably owned a hybrid vehicle at some point. For example, a mo-ped (a motorized pedal bike) is a type of hybrid because it combines the power of a gasoline engine with the pedal power of its rider. In fact, hybrid vehicles are all around us. Most of the locomotives we see pulling trains are diesel-electric hybrids. Cities like Seattle have diesel-electric buses -- these can draw electric power from overhead wires or run on diesel when they are away from the wires. Giant mining trucks are often diesel-electric hybrids. Submarines are also hybrid vehicles -- some are nuclear-electric and some are diesel-electric. Any vehicle that combines two or more sources of power that can directly or indirectly provide propulsion power is a hybrid.

Most hybrid cars on the road right now are gasoline-electric hybrids, although French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen has two diesel-electric hybrid cars in the works. Since gasoline hybrids are the kind you'll find at your local car dealership, we'll focus on those in this article.

The gasoline-electric hybrid car is just what it sounds like -- a cross between a gasoline-powered car and an electric car.



A gas-powered car has a fuel tank, which supplies gasoline to the engine. The engine then turns a transmission, which turns the wheels.

Go here young lady, it has the rest of the article and is interactive and easy to understand.

:)

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car...

Answer 6

electric motors give better traction performance, eg max torque at 0rpm, no warm-up, no energy use when stationary, energy recovery when slowing down (regenerative braking).

Unfortunatly the patents on the NiMH batteries are held by texaco or chevron, and they only allow small batteris that give electric vehicles (evs) a range of 3 miles per charge,

so the Prius connects an infernal combustion engine (ice) to the electric via an automatic variable transmission system.

The petrol motor runs at a set of fixed optimised revs, if there is more power than required this charges the batteries. if there is not enough power the electric motor assists the petrol.

It depends on power demands, not speed, what mode the hybrid operates in - ev, ice, ice charging batteries, regenerative. The prius can manually select ev at speeds below 27 mph, eg if you wish to move out of a car park quietly.

Answer 7

Electric,use of batterys at low level performance,recharged @higher volts than normql car. At higher speeds engine transfers over to gas via use of computer.Hydrogen cars will be next,once they get better designs going,they run very clean.There is more to this but this is the basic anwser.

Answer 8

Flap flap flap....... get it bird??

Ha dunno either, where do these peeps get all the info??

How do you plug it in? the car??

I will take the bus... or walk or drive!! peAce sista

Answer 9

Basically a hybrid car has 2 engines - an internal combustion engine (like a regular car) and an electric engine.  When it doesn't require a lot of power, the car uses the electric engine.  When you need more power, the internal combustion engine kicks in too.  The electric engine is powered by batteries, which are recharged either during braking (called regenerative braking) or from the internal combustion engine if necessary, I believe.

Answer 10

magic