They are all over the place … hybrids. Now American car makers are throwing themselves into the mix and making hybrid cars and SUV’s. But, what exactly is a hybrid? and is it really helping?
Let’s get a few things clear right up front. Hybrids DO NOT run on electricity. They run on good old fashion gasoline. Some even run on diesel. Now I know right now some of you are screaming “wrong wrong wrong” at the monitor, but… it really is the truth. These are gas engine vehicles made … better.
The fact that it runs on gas and not electric is actually a good thing. Why? Because right now, the only real way we can produce that extra electricity is by burning coal and oil and gas. Sure, we have hydroelectric and solar and all those other green ways … but they barely make a dent in our electric usage. Let’s face facts, where does most of our electricity comes from? … fossil fuel. Using an electric car doesn’t stop pollution, it just moves it to where the power plants are.
And just to vent a little … I’m really tired of all this nonsense about Hydrogen cars and Electric cars. There isn’t any hydrogen or electricity buried in the earth, waiting to be dug up. (And no, we can’t just take hydrogen out of the oceans with a spoon… you need to burn a whole lot of fossil fuel to convert it). These really aren’t forms of usable energy, they are just ways to store and move it. You still have to make them, and right now the only way to do that is with fossil fuel… lots of fossil fuel. In the future we may do it with solar and wind and geothermal, but we aren’t even remotely close yet. We really need to hit if from both ends, conserve what we have now AND come up with new solutions for our great grandchildren to use. Hydrogen and Electric cars?… interesting experiments for the distant future, nothing more.
And by the way …People who think the only reason we still need to use oil is because of a vast right wing conspiracy need to go back to looking for Elvis and UFOs. If there was money to be made in solar panels and windmills, trust me… Exxon would be pumping them out by the billions. Alternate energy is still in the “pour money in” stage. It will be a long time before it starts becoming a reality. For now, we should stick to making good use of what we have. We can use the money we save to develop those new energy sources.
And one more thing, if you make ANY car 500lbs and the size of a garbage can it will get great mileage. I just wouldn’t put my kid in it and drive on a road filled with 6000lb SUV’s. Just making micro cars isn’t enough, you have to change to rules so you have a place to drive them too.
OK … I vented … I feel better
Back to hybrids, whats the deal? Simple … they work by using an electrical system to store and use otherwise wasted power. Let me explain …
There are two concepts that hybrids are designed around. ONE, a lot of energy is wasted in starting and stopping. If you can reclaim that energy,you’ll save fuel. and TWO, a smaller engine at ideal power is more efficient than a large one at low power. A Corvette engine is going to use much more fuel to generate 100 HP than the little 4 banger in a sub-compact.
To be fair, a Corvette is aerodynamic enough that it could cruise on the highway with a lawnmower engine in it. But, that wouldn’t be much fun now would it? When you want to accelerate (something a Corvette does quite well) you need gobs and gobs of extra power. That’s where a hybrid’s electric motor kicks in … for those extra ponies. Expect to see hybrid sports cars soon, the idea of adding a few hundred horsepower with a tiny electric motor is perfect for motorheads. It isn’t going to save the world, but it will make for some really wild muscle cars. And, motorheads will spend big money on it which will lead to more development and better systems. So … it’s all good. Don’t knock the need for speed too much, we were all young once.
What automakers have done in hybrids is combine a smaller gas engine with an electric motor-generator combination. Different cars have different setups, but the basic concept is the same. When you accelerate hard, the electric motor kicks in and boosts the gas engine. This allows a smaller engine to feel like a big one. At highway speeds, not much power is needed and the car runs mostly on the gas engine … but it’s a much smaller engine so it uses less fuel.
Some hybrids like the Toyota also use the electric motor alone some of the time. The gas engine kicks in only when the speed is right for it to run at maximum efficiency and to produce the electricity for the electric motor.
The braking system helps even more by capturing wasted power and using it to recharge the batteries. When you hit the brakes, instead of the brake pads converting all that momentum into heat, the generator converts it into electricity. This charges the battery for use when you accelerate (called regenerative braking). The brake pads only kick in for panic stops.
There are a few other trick that hybrids use also. The electric motor can be used in place of a starter to start the engine. And, (here’s the cool part) It can start the engine at any time. So, no more idle, the engine just shuts off when you stop … and runs when you go. Neat trick … kinda weird when you’re sitting at a light in dead silence. As a matter of fact, blind people are having trouble because they can’t hear them coming.
Some automakers use fancy transmissions that allow the engine to stay at optimum RPM. Instead of a 4 or 5 speed, you have an infinite speed transmission. Normally these transmissions waste lots of power as heat, but in hybrids it is converted back to electricity the same way the braking energy is reclaimed.
Some hybrids are also equipped with a plug and battery charger so you can charge them from a wall outlet. This is probably convenient, but I doubt that it is really helping things big picture. Electricity is really no more efficient than gasoline. Most of the energy is lost in making the electricity and transmitting it to your house. And we still need to make it from fossil fuel.
Consider …A new home heating systems can have be as high as 98% efficient. We are lucky if our cars can reach 1/3 of that. All the rest of the energy is lost as heat. Now that we have the electric power systems in these cars, automakers will be looking to convert that waste heat back to electricity. This may be the car of the future.
Now… one last thing. Are we really saving resources by buying a hybrid? The answer is NO, we aren’t. Every time someone buys a hybrid, the company gets to make another V8 gas guzzler. The way the CAFE standards work, companies need to have an average fuel economy of around 27 MPG. The 50+ MPG hybrids average out the 15 MPG luxury monsters. You’re just allowing someone else to get the V8 instead of the V6. It’s kinda disheartening sometimes. Maybe someone needs to take a bat to the politicians and knock some sense into them. If nothing else, you’ll save some money on fuel. Sooner or later everyone else will catch up.
