Hybrid Cars

1007 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Hybrid cars

Introduction A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that is powered by two or more power sources to move the vehicle (Lampton 2009). Among the types of power sources are electricity, petrol, and hydrogen gas. As of 2011, the world’s best selling hybrid, the Toyota Prius, on sale since 1997 has sold over 3 million units worldwide. Sales of other hybrids are also picking up. (Schwartz 2011) There are 3 different power trains that are used by production hybrids. Only 12% of survey respondents knew this (Personal Survey 2012). The parallel hybrid system involves an internal combustion engine and an electric motor that assists the engine to provide torque and power for the vehicle to move using a power splitter, a set of gears (Nice & Layton 2000). Since the electric motor used is small, these hybrids cannot be solely powered by the motor. In series-parallel hybrids, there is an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. The power generated by both sources can be used to drive the wheels or charge the batteries. The vehicle can be powered solely by the electric motor or the internal combustion engine or even both simultaneously (Nice & Layton 2000). In a series hybrid vehicle, the vehicle is driven by the electric motor only without mechanical connections to the internal combustion engine, which only recharges the battery that powers the vehicle when the battery charge is low (Wu 1995). This system was invented by Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of Porsche, in 1900 (Lampton 2009). Advantages The first advantage is hybrid vehicles use less fuel than their petrol counterparts. This is because hybrids have an additional electric motor to help power the vehicle and reduce the strain on the engine, besides being able to shut down the... ... middle of paper ... ...owStuffWorks, 8 July, http://www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/hybrid-technology/hybrid-battery- cost.htm, accessed 20 February 2012. Ransom, K 2008, ‘Reasons to buy a hybrid-or not’, CNN Living, 28 January, http://articles.cnn.com/2008-01-28/living/buy.hybrid_1_hybrid-vehicles-fuel-costs-bill- reinert?_S=PM:LIVING, accessed 20 February 2012. Schwartz, A 2011, ‘EVs Gain Traction as Toyota Prius Sales hit 3 million’, Fast Company, 9 March, http:// http://www.fastcompany.com/1736964/why-it-matters-that-three- million-toyota-priuss-have-been-sold, accessed 4 March 2012. Wu, C 1995, ‘Hybrid Cars’, Science News, vol. 148, no. 15, pp 232-233, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4018244, accessed 30 March 2012. Car fuel data, CO2 and vehicle tax tools, 2012, Directgov, Department for Transport, United Kingdom, http://carfueldata.direct.gov.uk/, accessed 30 March 2012.

Show More
Related

  • Would You Buy a Car That Looked Like This

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    Next Simms addresses how the Global warming conference in two weeks causes urgency for some new thinking on SUV’s. This statement shows Simms concerns about Global warming and the effects from SUV’s. It also shows his need to inform. Then Simms introduces his solution, “So shouldn’t SUV’s now ...

    Read More

  • To the Slaughter in The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Americans’ Love Affair with Cars, Trucks and SUVS Continues.” USA Today. USA Today, 30 August 2003. Web. 5 January 2012.

    Read More

  • The Future of Automotive Engines

    439 Words  | 1 Pages

    Another engine type is the hybrid engine. The hybrid involves both the use of a gasoline engine and an electrical engine.

    Read More

  • High Demand for Hybrid Cars in the United States

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toyota was the first corporation to expose the very first hybrid car, the Toyota Prius. The Prius has been the most commonly profound hybrid since year 2000. The name Prius is virtually tantamount with the word Hybrid, as most would agree with. As demonstrated by their numbers, the Toyota Prius is by far the most well-known, with over one million cars sold solely in the United States to this day. Statistics show that most buyers that pursue this type of vehicle are mostly all for eco-friendly and/or economic trepidations (The Corvallis Advocate, 2012). When the Prius was initially presented, the car was costing Toyota $40,000 to build, and they were selling it for a low cost of just $20,000 at the dealer. Some of the perks this vehicle carries with them is the fact that the Prius does an outstanding job of receiving high gas mileage. Proving a greater MPG of 62, reporters all over the U.S. have met th...

    Read More

  • History Of Hybrid Cars

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    The beginning of hybrid cars goes back to the 20th century. The Paris Exposition of 1900 included the Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil which is the first ever hybrid car. The inventor of the Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil was a 23 year old engineer named Ferdinand Porsche. Porsche is known today for his Volkswagen cars and for the famous sport cars designed by his son. He created a vehicle that could travel 38 miles on electricity alone. Porsche partnered with Jacob Lohner who wanted to develop motorcars that had incorporated coaches. The gas-powered cars at that time were very noisy and difficult to start. Porsche created battery-powered electric motors and put them in the front-wheel hubs to produce a front-wheel drive car. He also added an internal combustion gasoline engine so the batteries in the car could be charged. Sadly, the Lohner-Porsche could only reach up to 35 miles an hour. The idea of hybrid cars decreased during the years of growth in the modern automobile industry. This period brought a national highway system in the United States and gasoline was inexpensive. The concerns with auto emissions brought back the idea of hybrid cars. C. Russell Feldman, one of the founders of Motorola, decided to explore the possibilities of hybrid cars again. He contacted an electrical engineer named Victor Wouk to see if a hybrid car could work in society. Wouk found out that the batteries in the hybrid cars did not have the energy to produce a lot of speed and range. In the 1960’s, Wouk combined the low-emissions benefit of an electric car with the power and range of a gasoline engine to create a hybrid car. To make his hybrid car ideas real, Victor Wouk and his partner Charles Rosen formed the company called the Petro-E...

    Read More

  • Hybrid Cars

    1469 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are 3 popular hybrids on the market today which are the Honda Insight coupe, Toyota Prius four door hatchback and the Honda Civic hybrid Sedan. There are 6 new hybrid models on the way to the market which will give families a larger selection to choose from. These cars will allow consumers to save on gas. The consumer gets more miles per gallon with the Hybrid car. These cars can go 600 miles before having to refuel with gasoline which will decrease the amount of money that the consumer will have to pay for filling the gas tank. Also, these cars produce about 90 percent fewer smog-forming tailpipe emissions compared with the average new car, according to Dave Hermance, head of Environmental Engineering for Toyota. Purchasing these cars will also allow the consumer to receive a tax break of $1,500. The price of these cars are no...

    Read More

  • Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology

    1747 Words  | 4 Pages

    When the 1970s rolled around and the oil crisis struck, gas prices rose tremendously and people were very concerned about the dependency for oil and the idea of hybrid cars once again came up. The main financial support came from the U.S. Department of Energy, with a few automobile companies also investing some money. By the early 1990s Volkswagen was the only automaker that considered marketing a hybrid vehicle, only in Europe though. 1993 sparked a major event for the advancement of hybrid cars. The Department of Energy signed a five-year $138 million development agreement with General Motors and a $122 million agreement with Ford to design and build preproduction hybrid prototypes that could be marketed in less than 10 years. Four years later brought about a new generation of hybrid vehicles with the introduction of the Toyota Prius (Sperling, p. 101).

    Read More

  • Electric Cars

    1597 Words  | 4 Pages

    The future American commuter will undoubtedly have to transition from the use of fossil fuels to new alternatives due to the diminishing availability of the nation’s oil resources. How will America respond to this upcoming issue? It is difficult to predict which alternative fuel source America will ultimately choose, but with the premier of Nissan’s electric powered Leaf and other companies; such as Tesla Motors and Chevy, with their electric cars ready for market, the electric car may be winning the race to become the new standard for the gasoline alternative. Electric cars resolve long standing environmental issues, but it will need to maneuver around many roadblocks to become a marketable consideration for the general public. The cost of electric cars, currently on the market, makes them an impractical purchase for the average consumer. If cost is not the growing concern in today’s economy which prevents the consumer from considering this option; they may deny the technological advance due to battery storage capabilities and the inadequate infrastructure in place to refuel and provide for them.

    Read More

  • Supply and Demand Determinants in the Auto Industry

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most American cars are not hybrids or fuel-efficient, they are usually big SUV’s or trucks that get eighteen to ten miles per gallon. Most of Hondas, Toyotas, and Hyundai’s get around 20 to 30 miles per gallon, and hybrids get 50 miles per gallon. Peoples demand fuel-efficient cars because oil is i...

    Read More

  • Tesla Motors Case Study Essay

    1827 Words  | 4 Pages

    Portfolio Project: Tesla Motors Case Study Tesla Motors (Tesla), founded in 2003 by Elon Musk, is an automotive company focused on enhancing Electric Vehicle market by creating optimum performance, all electric, vehicles for every class of consumer (Tesla Motors, 2015). In order to achieve such ambitious goals, Tesla Motors not only designs, but also manufactures, and personally sells the company’s electric vehicles (Hirsch, 2015). As additional quality assurance, Tesla Motors also designs, manufactures, and sells, electric vehicle power-train components, and battery products (Hirsch, 2015). Yet, despite the pivotal role Tesla’s self curated products play in the success of Tesla’s vehicles, the socially responsible company does not privatize Apart from Musk’s concise vision statement Tesla has a truly inspiring mission statement, “At the core, Tesla Motors believes that electric cars should not be perceived as a sacrificial mode of transportation. Tesla Motors has brought the best of both the automotive and technological worlds together by permanently etching the image of electric cars being a step backwards in performance, efficiency, and design” (Tesla Motors, Chiefly, and most apparently, it is the goal of Tesla Motor to generate demand for Tesla vehicles (Andrade, Holloway, Payne, Roy & Sheffield, 2015).

    Read More

  • Hybrid Vehicles Advantages And Disadvantages

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    In recent years, the demand to develop hybrid vehicles is increasing due to concern over environment depletion and energy insecurity. Auto-manufacturers are striving to develop many alternatives to curb fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions, one such alternative known as “Integrated Starter Generator (ISG)” most commonly used in mild hybrid vehicles. Integrated Starter Generator is an electrical device which replaces the conventional starter, alternator and flywheel in the vehicles by performing functions of these elements collectively.

    Read More

  • Hybrid Cars

    399 Words  | 1 Pages

    Hybrid cars use both gas and electric. The gasoline engine is the primary source of power, while the electric motor is used at low speeds. Emissions levels are reduced because the gasoline engine shuts off at low speeds. An additional benefit of the parallel configuration is that no outside source of electric power is required because the engine itself generates the required electricity. A Hybrid Electric Vehicle known as HEV have several advantages over traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles: Regenerative braking capability, which helps minimize the energy lost when driving. Engine is sized to average load, not peak load, which reduces the weight of the engine. Fuel efficiency is greatly increased, while emissions are greatly decreased. HEVs can be operated using alternative fuels; therefore they need not be depended on fossil fuels (http://www.ott.doe.gov/hev/what.html#hev). Another great thing about these machines is the mpg; on the average, a hybrid car gets anywhere from 55-70mpg on the hwy. This is what makes the car all worth having. Now all this sounds good, but there are some issues that must be addressed.

    Read More

  • Hybrid Vehicles and Their Effect on the Environment

    1905 Words  | 4 Pages

    Today, people use their own personal vehicles to travel more than ever before. Personal transportation is no longer considered a luxury; it is now considered a necessity. The number of cars in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1970s. The number of miles traveled by cars has risen nearly 150 percent, yet the United States population has only grown roughly 40 percent during that time (hybridcars.com, Driving Trends). Although it may seem like we are advancing into the future, in reality, we are moving backwards from the effects these vehicles have on our bodies and the environment. The pollution produced by these vehicles has brought us to the day where we must find other modes of transportation that cause less harm to the world in which we live. Advances in technology have developed hybrid vehicles to try and slow down the amount of pollution. Driving a hybrid vehicle, instead of a conventional gas powered vehicle, can reduce the amount of pollution that affects our lives and the environment around us.

    Read More

  • Electric Cars

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    The issue of electric car has been arising nowadays. But many of us never really find a true

    Read More

  • Hybrid Cars Essay

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vehicles in this day and time are nothing like what they used to be. Over half of the car manufacturers are now trying to build new cars and trucks to be as fuel efficient as they can be. Although hybrids conserve more gas than standard vehicles do, they use gas, also. Hybrids do not use as much gas as the ol...

    Read More

More about Hybrid Cars

Open Document