I have to do a speech on hybrid cars, help needed!?

Question

I have to pursue people to buy a hybrid car, because of the increasing gas prices in america.

I don't know a lot about hybrids, since I don't own one. I would like some statistics on hybrids such as

the average car owner spends this much more money than a hybrid car owner/

or something along those lines.

also I would like some facts about hybrids.

explaining how hybrids work, IN SIMPLE TERMINOLOGY!

and can someone explain to me if its true that when you break in a hybrid it produces energy or recharges the battery?

all help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Well hybrids generally cost more than comparable normal gas cars.  The savings in gas makes up for that initial price difference in approximately 5-10 years.  You can look up prices and mileage efficiency of various cars in Yahoo Autos

http://autos.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTE5MGR...

and specifically for hybrids in Yahoo Autos Green Center

http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center-fuel...

In the Green Center you can look at cars that are just hybrids or just gas powered, so that's a good way to get the information you need.

As for how they work - a hybrid has 2 engines, an internal combustion engine (ICE) like a regular car and an electric engine.  It also has batteries.  At slow speeds, it runs primarily or completely on the electric engine so it's not burning any gas, and the electric engine gets its energy from the batteries.  When it needs more power (to accelerate faster or go at higher speeds) the ICE kicks in to supplement the electric engine.

Hybrids also have regenerative braking which captures energy normally lost to heat when braking to recharge the batteries.  The batteries can also recharge by taking energy from the ICE.

Hope that helps.  Good luck with the speech.

Answer 2

Hybrid cars have a large battery. When the car goes, the battery charges from the rotating wheels. There is an electric generator, which works like windmills that produce electricity when they rotate. Electric generators have magnets that when rotate along copper wires produce electricity. This charges the battery as the car goes. So for a while the car drives on gasoline, but when the battery is charged, hybrid cars have a second engine aside from the regular gasoline engine: an electric engine. The electric motor runs the car like the gasoline motor and the hybrid vehicle switches to use the regular gasoline engine and the electric engine. When running on the electric motor that was charged from the moving car, the car is not wasting gasoline. Scientists found that electricity can be brought back from a moving car, and this electricity used for saving on gas.

The hybrid vehicle both returns electricity when it is moving or when breaking, as long as it is moving, electricity is made to the batteries. The breaking mechanism might use a higher-charging mode for the batteries as a large weight can be discharged at that time.

The result is saving on gasoline.

Toyota Prius comes as a hybrid car that runs over 61mpg in the city, and Honda Civic Hybrid does around 50mpg compared to other sedans that are not hybrids and burn 20-25mpg or small cars without hybrid typically around 25-35mpg. The savings on gas can be significant.

Many people hate them exactly because we know that gas runs into the car's engine and it runs. But we can't explain hybrid, so we don't know what the car does any more, and that bothers a lot of people. Cars are not supposed to be smarter than people.

Soon cars will extract electricity from people's brainwaves. That is how the Matrix story started, machines used people's brainwaves for generating electricity.

One will drive a car one day with his brain. All the energy focused. A mind over matter circumstance, the morbid foundation of matrix is in fact is based on hybrid technologies.

A mind, puzzled.

This hybrid stuff is not for German mentalities where people like to feel the car and the road. But the Japanese and fat Americans are for it.

Answer 3

http://www.nrdc.org/ here are some ideas

Answer 4

Here are some links to information on hybrid cars.  If you browse out to these sites you'll get a lot of different information including batteries, component manufacturers and range.

The Toyota site in particular has a lot of information and a great overview of how their system works.

Honda

Honda currently sells the Civic and Accord as hybrid vehicles, but the Accord hybrid will be discontinued after the 2007 model year.  These vehicles use Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.

Honda's first hybrid vehicle was the Insight which was introduced in 1999 as a 2000 model but discontinued with the 1006 model year.

GM

General Motors has a fairly large lineup of vehicles that use a hybrid system including the Chevrolet Silverdo, various Saturn Vues as well as 'transit buses'.  GM's web site was difficult to navigate but I did find that the Saturn vehicles use Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.

Toyota

In their current model lineup the Camry, Highlander and Prius are hybrid vehicles which use Nickel Metal Hydride batteries as part of the hybird system.