The Next Time Your Child Asks You about What Is

The Next Time Your Child Asks You about What Is a Hybrid Car

There is a category of vehicles that the government recognizes for its contribution to a clean environment (or its lack of contribution to a polluted environment): the Zero Emissions Vehicle standard (or a battery-powered car in everyday language). Not everyone has the stomach for the tame experience of such a car. For them, there is the SULEV standard - the super ultra low emissions vehicle standard - or a hybrid car in everyday language. So, exactly what is a hybrid car? The easy answer would be a Toyota Prius; but that would be neither here nor there. The concept is pretty straightforward: a hybrid car's power derives from more than one sources. Usually, a car like the Toyota Prius or the Honda Insight has two power sources - gas and electric (or gaselectric). And they achieve their phenomenal mileage readings with all kinds of ingenious schemes that you would be most interested in hearing about.

If you ask a question about what is a hybrid car, the conventional answer doesn't adequately explain the philosophy of it. Why should a car running on two different kinds of motor be efficient at all? Well, the conventional internal combustion engine you find in your regular car, basically, functions in an everyday situation because of the transmission. Each model engine is designed to run at a certain optimum speed; but you can't really run an engine at just that one speed - what do you do when you have to race to work in the morning, and then slow down to inch along in bumper to bumper traffic? That one engine needs to run at all kinds of speeds, mostly at speeds where it is inefficient. What they do with a hybrid vehicle is, they give it a reasonable sized engine, maybe a one and a half liter one, and set it to run at just one speed, the one it runs most efficiently at. And then they get the car an electric motor to run off a bunch of batteries that they stick somewhere where there is space.

Surely you've heard that a car's engine is most inefficient when you start it cold in the morning. That need never happen with a hybrid car, as the gas engine doesn't operate when you are just setting off. At low speeds up to 15 mph, it is the electric inch motor that runs the show entirely,
single-handedly. The moment you cross 15 mph, though, the gas engine starts to run in tandem with the electric engine. The gas engine only runs at its optimum speed, never higher, that is around 5000 RPM. That's quite a non-stressful speed for an engine; since the designers know that the engine doesn't need to run stressfully high rpms, they build it of lightweight material, that saves on dead weight. This is what is a hybrid car - clever ways brought together to coax every bit of savings from existing technology.

At the heart of any hybrid vehicle is a complicated gear set of planetary gears that brings the electric motor and the gasoline engine together to smoothly share load amongst themselves. This makes sure that the car doesn't even need a transmission, automatic or manual, and the start button that you need to start a new car. That is what is a hybrid car actually - it always starts on the electric motor, so there isn't a start button.