Information About The Hybrid Car

Check out Hybrid Car Review for more tips about hybrid engines and an updated version of hybrid electric car.

By hybrid car we refer to any vehicle that relies on two separate power sources for propulsion. There are all sorts of alternative power sources among which we can count wind, natural gas in liquid or compressed form, rechargeable units, wood, coal and the like. The term hybrid car or vehicle is used most frequently to refer to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) in which an internal combustion engine is combined with one or more electric motors.

As pointed out in the lines above, the range of hybrid vehicles is more extended than the category of simple cars. Just think of mopeds and electric bicycles. These are the simplest forms of hybrid vehicles. They combine the power from an internal combustion engine or electric motor with the power of the rider’s muscles. Then there are hybrid heavy vehicles like railway locomotives, buses, heavy goods vehicles, ships or mobile hydraulic machinery. Usually, the term hybrid car-vehicle is used to refer to hybrid electric vehicles. This range includes the following types of automotives: AHS2 (Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Silverado, Cadillac Escalade, Saturn Vue), Toyota Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight and many others. A petroleum-electric hybrid car usually gets its power from an internal combustion engine (gasoline or diesel engine) and an electric battery.

The beginnings of the hybrid car date back to the late 1900s when David Arthurs, an electrical engineer from Arkansas, invented the braking regenerative hybrid. Besides the hybrid car as mentioned above, which uses two or more different propulsion devices, there are also vehicles which use distinct sources of energy or input types but only one engine. Though there is a certain similarity to a hybrid car, distinctions do exist. In fact, vehicles with double or multiple energy sources are dual mode automotive systems of the trolley type.

There are lots of advantages to buying a hybrid car, and the green considerations are not the only ones. First, there is the aspect of fuel economy, and secondly, the benefit for the environment and, implicitly, for humankind is undeniable in the fight to reduce pollution. These two advantages and benefits brought about by the hybrid car are tributary to at least three elements in the design: the combination of gasoline and the electric motors, a battery with plenty of storage capacity and the possibility to re-capture important amounts of energy, which are normally wasted while braking.