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
Plug-in hybrids are my favorite configuration. It’s an electric car but on the rare long trips, it has a bvkup generator on board.
However, the larger battery is heavy and more expendive.
The most successful parallel hybrid is the Toyota Prius. The city mileage is better than the highway, so they work well as taxis.
The electric battery can only run a short while, so the engine/generator must come on often.
That being said, they often get 50-MPG, and also last 400K miles.
The worst fuel economy and worst emissions are from accelerating from zero up to cruising speed. This is where the Prius electric motor does the heavy lifting.
The famous second-gen Prius sold new for under $20K. 2004-ish?
The Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid is $45K in 2023 dollars
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