how do hybrid cars work?
In: Technology
Gasoline engines are very inefficient at low load levels. An engine producing say 5 horsepower needs almost as much fuel as an engine producing 10 horsepower.
Hybrids improve efficiency by never running the combustion engine at 5 horsepower. If the driving situation requires 5 horsepower and the battery is fully charged, they just turn off the combustion engine and use the electric motor instead. And once the battery is empty, they turn on the combustion engine, run it at 10 horsepower, use 5 horsepower to drive the car and the remaining 5 horsepower to charge the battery.
That way the combustion engine never has to run in its most inefficient load range. It either runs with a decent amount of load when charging the battery, or it doesn’t run at all, when the electric motor is powering the car.
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