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?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.