Why aren’t all hybrid cars plug-in hybrids?

553 viewsOtherTechnology

In a typical hybrid car (that’s not a plug-in hybrid), the batteries get charged from the engine running and from regenerative braking. They then power an electric motor to assist with locomotion. You might park your car in the garage with the batteries at 90% capacity, or 70%, or 50%, or whatever.

When you pull back out, the batteries are then still at that “whatever” level. Doesn’t really matter. So how does the car’s battery bank know or care whether it was topped off via shore power while parked in the garage? Why is having an onboard charger for shore power (or a plug for a wall charger) such a difficult engineering feat? Seems like it would just require the addition of a part that costs a few hundred bucks.

RVs and boats have a “house” battery bank that generally functions this way. Maybe it’s getting charged by the alternator, maybe by solar panels, maybe by shore power. But hybrid cars having a shore power option (i.e. PHEV) seems like a real premium option that is not easily built.

What am I missing? Why does the battery bank care where it got its charge from?

In: Technology

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Many hybrids don’t work that way at all actually – there is an electric motor and a gas engine, but *both* are connected to the drivetrain and power the wheels.

Gas engines consume a lot of fuel and experience more wear during stop-and-go driving, but electric motor efficiency isn’t really affected by this. Gas engines are much more efficient when kept at a constant RPM to maintain your speed, electric motors don’t benefit much from this.

So, the car is actually swapping between using the electric motor and the gas engine to power the wheels. During acceleration, it swaps over to full electric, or uses the electric motor to assist the gas engine. During highway cruising, it’s mostly powered by the gas engine, which is also recharging the batteries while you’re going.

You are viewing 1 out of 10 answers, click here to view all answers.