Transportation Hybrid Car Engines How

Transportation Hybrid Car Engines How exactly does a hybrid car engine work? We all know these engines use less gasoline and are more economical than conventional internal combustion engines, but how exactly to they do it? They do it not with smoke and mirrors, but with new and exciting technologies! The hybrid car engine is a relatively new development in automobile technology that is really beginning to catch on as gas prices continue to climb.

The word "hybrid" actually means a combination of two engines or power supplies, which is why these cars are called hybrids. For example, the big diesel-electric engines you see pulling trains are actually considered hybrid engines. Two of the hybrids on the market for several years are the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, although there are some new models hitting showroom floors, including SUVs from Lexus, Ford, and Mercury, and upcoming hybrid entries from other companies, including Nissan. Honda is also introducing a hybrid Civic 4-door model.

Hybrids are the wave of the future because of rising gasoline prices and because they are much less harmful to the environment than traditional gasoline engines. In fact, they reduce pollution up to 90% (Bamber). Hybrids blend the best of two technologies to come out ahead in gas mileage. They use an electric engine combined with a gasoline engine. Why? Because it's more efficient that using only one or the other. Gasoline engines provide more power but are most costly to run and cause more pollution.

Electric engines use a bank of batteries that must be recharged after a certain number of miles, (usually between 50 to 100 miles), and they are notoriously underpowered - they can reach perhaps a maximum of 60 mph. By blending the two technologies, engineers have come up with a more effective engine that has the power most people want and the fuel economy the country needs. Here's how the thing actually works. The car runs mainly on the electric engine that runs off a bank of batteries.

When the electric engine is accelerating and cruising, the gasoline engine shuts down and does not run. When the car is idling and the batteries need charging, the gasoline engine kicks in to charge the batteries. That means the car does not have to be recharged after going only short distances. The electric motor can also help recharge the batteries if necessary. The gasoline engine recharges the bank of batteries, and the car just keeps going.

Most hybrids can get between 55 and 60 mpg on the highway, although some owners do report less. Most of the cars also use a generator that actually produces the electric power that drives the electric motor, and most use conventional transmissions, although the Toyota Prius uses a new, radically different transmission. The cars also combine a gasoline gas tank with a bank of batteries to power both engines.

This is called a "parallel hybrid." Another type of hybrid engine, the "series hybrid" uses the gasoline engine to power a generator that creates the power for the electric engine or can recharge the batteries (Nice). There's another advantage to hybrid engines - they're smaller than conventional engines, which means the cars themselves can be smaller and more fuel efficient. Another expert writes, "hybrid car engines are also built smaller to accommodate the ninety-nine percent (99%) of the time when the car is not going uphill or accelerating.