ElI5 How do hybrid cars work? Can these cars run on gas and electric independently Like basically have 1 gas engine and 1 electric engine? Or do they work together to get better performance?
In: Technology
There’s different applications of the hybrid concept. Regenerate breaking, dual power, and automatic shutoff/on.
Regenerate braking recharges the battery when the brakes are applied, this means the battery doesn’t have to be charged by engine power like in conventional cars.
Dual power is what you suggested, an electric motor can be used to aid the engine in accelerating, or the electric motor can provide all the power to the car at low-speed conditions and is aided by the engine at higher speeds.
Automatic shutoff/on turns the engine off/on during lulls in vehicle activity to conserve fuel; relying fully on electric power to operate the car (think your car turning off at red lights and turning back on the second you hit the gas).
Different combinations or all of these technologies in a car are referred to as “hybrid”.
There are two (broad) approaches that a car manufacturer can take for a “hybrid” gas electric vehicle.
One is where the gas engine and electric motor can both drive the wheels of the car. So, in a way, independently as you put it. The electric motor and battery in this design is usually small so can probably only power the car without the gas engine at slow speeds. The electric motor is designed to save gas (say cruising) or for additional power during overtaking – which allows the manufacturer to put in a smaller gas engine. Think of it as a gas powered car with electric motor supplementing.
The second approach is one where the car can only be driven by the electric motor. The gas engine is used to generate electricity to charge the batteries. In this case, to your question, the car cannot be run on the gas engine. The electric motors have to be more powerful and typically these kind of hybrids have larger battery packs too. This is an electric car with a gas engine range extender.
It depends on the car, but there are three common types:
1. The mild hybrids have a small battery and small electric motor attached to a usual gas engine. The motor is used to save energy while breaking and uses the saved energy to help accelerating and therefore saving fuel. These systems are cheap, but also do not bring large savings (arond 8 % I think).
2. The Plug-In-Hybrids are supposed to work fully electric when the battery was loaded, so they need a large electric motor and a battery that enables them to drive some distance (usually 50 km) without using any fuel. Next to the electric engine, there is a complete gas engine, that powers the car if the battery isn’t charged. The Hybrid-System still works then, but only in a similar way like the mild-hybrid. So Plug-In-Hybrids have two large engines and therefore a good performance, but also a high price.
3. Toyota Prius and some more Toyota models and models of some more manufacturers have a very progressive system which is a bit more complex and very different to a usual engine. They have a medium sized electric motor and a medium sized gas engine. Depending on the current speed and acceleration, it uses them differently. For very slow speeds, it can drive fully electric, for moderate speeds it uses the gas engine to generate electric power which is then used to feed the electric motor, at high speeds it uses the gas engine similar to a normal car, because the medium electric motor can’t provide high speeds. That was probably oversimplified. The system is more expensive than a mild-hybrid, but will achieve 20 to 25 % fuel savings.
Generally, the goal is not to achieve better performance, but fuel savings and less CO2-emissions. There are hybrid-supercars though, they still have a high fuel consumption, but can use the advantages of the electric engine. Electric engines provide a much better acceleration at small speed.
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