Hybrid Cars And City Living

There are various reasons why you might like a hybrid car. You may want a hybrid car in order to slash your ever increasing petrol bill; in order to lessen your personal effect on the environment or you might only like the kudos of driving a car that is at the vanguard of technology. Of course, it could be for a mixture of all three reasons too.

Hybrid cars have been about for around ten years and so the technology is fairly well advanced. The thing to keep in mind is that hybrids are not performance cars in the conventional sense of the word. In the context of cars, the word 'performance' normally refers to 'high speed', but hybrid cars are performance cars because they save more than eight percent on the fuel bill.

They create this saving by basically using two engines. The one engine is a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) and the other is an electric motor. Both engines deliver their power through the same mechanical means to the wheels.

The ICE generates electricity and supplies it to a battery, like any car does, however, a hybrid car can use this battery power to drive the car as well.

The electricity is generated by alternators and the braking system. Regenerative braking supplies a large amount of power to the batteries. In fact, so much so that under regular driving conditions, the batteries do not have to be charged from the national grid.

The 'early' hybrids used the electric motor only as an 'assist'. In other words, when the petrol engine would normally need to be revved up to produce enough power to overtake or go up hill, the electric motor would kick in to assist it, thus saving fuel, but the petrol engine is in fact running all the time. This a form of halfway hybrid. The Honda Insight was one of these.

However, a full hybrid will use one or the other or both of the engines, depending on how its computer best reads the power requirements of the driving conditions. The driver has no decisions to make, engines are turned on and off automatically and seamlessly by the car's on board computer. Examples of this type of full hybrid are the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid.

Although most individuals think of hybrids as new technology, the first hybrid car was manufactured over a hundred years ago. Contemporary hybrids are about ten years old and the technology is improving rapidly.

However, what really has to happen now for hybrids to create a real effect on the amount of oil that the West consumes is for the prices to come down.

And I mean really come down a lot. Hybrid cars are way too expensive for the average driver. If manufacturers reduced the price of the cars, more people would buy one which would stimulate the economy and aid the balance of payments deficit to say nothing of the impact of burning less fossil fuel would have on the environment.