Hybrid Car - Improving Fuel Economy

Improving Fuel Economy
Besides a smaller, more efficient engine, today's hybrids use many other tricks to increase fuel efficiency. Some of those tricks will help any type of car get better mileage, and some only apply to a hybrid. To squeeze every last mile out of a gallon of gasoline, a hybrid car can:

• Recover energy and store it in the battery - Whenever you step on the brake pedal in your car, you are removing energy from the car. The faster a car is going, the more kinetic energy it has. The brakes of a car remove this energy and dissipate it in the form of heat. A hybrid car can capture some of this energy and store it in the battery to use later. It does this by using "regenerative braking." That is, instead of just using the brakes to stop the car, the electric motor that drives the hybrid can also slow the car. In this mode, the electric motor acts as a generator and charges the batteries while the car is slowing down.

• Sometimes shut off the engine - A hybrid car does not need to rely on the gasoline engine all of the time because it has an alternate power source -- the electric motor and batteries. So the hybrid car can sometimes turn off the gasoline engine, for example when the vehicle is stopped at a red light.

• Use advanced aerodynamics to reduce drag - When you are driving on the freeway, most of the work your engine does goes into pushing the car through the air. This force is known as aerodynamic drag. This drag force can be reduced in a variety of ways. One sure way is to reduce the frontal area of the car. Think of how a big SUV has to push a much greater area through the air than a tiny sports car.Reducing disturbances around objects that stick out from the car or eliminating them altogether can also help to improve the aerodynamics. For example, covers over the wheel housings smooth the airflow and reduce drag. And sometimes, mirrors are replaced with small cameras.

• Use low-rolling resistance tires - The tires on most cars are optimized to give a smooth ride, minimize noise, and provide good traction in a variety of weather conditions. But they are rarely optimized for efficiency. In fact, the tires cause a surprising amount of drag while you are driving. Hybrid cars use special tires that are both stiffer and inflated to a higher pressure than conventional tires. The result is that they cause about half the drag of regular tires.

• Use lightweight materials - Reducing the overall weight of a car is one easy way to increase the mileage. A lighter vehicle uses less energy each time you accelerate or drive up a hill. Composite materials like carbon fiber or lightweight metals like aluminum and magnesium can be used to reduce weight.

 Sources: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car4.htm

Hybrid Car - 3 Reasons to go for HYBRID car

1: Competitive Prices and tax Incentives

Hybrid cars are generally priced slightly higher than their gasoline-powered counterparts. The extra effort necessary to create the technology that combines both gas and electric power makes them more expensive. However, many automakers are pushing to produce more affordable hybrids for drivers looking to take the plunge.

when the Budget 2011 was announced, the Malaysian government lowered the duties for hybrid vehicles below 2,000cc of displacement to 0% for both excise and import duty. The Toyota Prius is priced at RM139,900 in the Peninsular Malaysia and RM141,500 in Sabah and Sarawak after drop of about RM35,000 in Peninsular Malaysia from the previous price of RM175,000. At the same time, the new launched Honda Insight became the first mass-produced hybrid car to cost less than $100,000, as the most basic model goes for $98,000. For drivers who don't worry too much about extra features, it's now possible to purchase any one of a variety of affordable hybrids.

2: Environmental benefits

Burning fossil fuels, like the gasoline burned in an internal combustion engine, releases carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where they collect and warm the planet. As the global climate changes, significant consequences can arise, including elevated temperatures, rising sea levels, freshwater scarcity and crop failures.

Hybrid Car significantly reduced the emissions of C02 into environment. Fewer and cleaner emissions is a major reason why hybrid cars are popularly known as 'green' cars. Reduced emission ensures lower pollution levels, something which is highly necessary in today's times.Another way in which hybrid cars benefit the environment is that they help in lowering noise pollution levels. Hybrid car engines go about churning the required amount of horsepower without any excessive roaring. When switched onto electric power mode, these cars are virtually silent when in operation.

3: Financial Benefits

Improved fuel efficiency is one of the other significant advantages of owning a hybrid vehicle. When it comes to mileage, hybrid cars outperform regular gasoline-powered cars by approximately 20 to 30 percent. That is quite a significant number in today's fuel scenario. Shutting off the engine when not required, re-using the energy spent in braking, advanced aerodynamics, better-designed tires, etc. are some of the other advantages that hybrid cars have to offer. Usage of hybrid cars translates into added savings. As they offer better fuel economy, you end up spending lesser on gasoline, thereby ensuring a few hundred dollars' worth savings every year.

Hybrid Car - Parallel Hybrid or Series Hybrid

All hybrids have in common is the ability to generate electric current, store it in a large battery, and use that current to help drive the car. Hybrids capture electrical energy produced by a regenerative braking system, and their engines can power a generator, too.

A series hybrid is very similar to a parallel hybrid. Both have the advantage of increasing fuel efficiency compared with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, and giving the driver greater range than an all-electric vehicle. Both types of hybrids are reliant on large battery packs to store energy and both types may use additional technologies like regenerative braking to capture energy that would otherwise go to waste.

However, the mechanisms are quite different:

Parallel Hybrid

With a parallel hybrid electric vehicle, both the engine and the electric motor generate the power that drives the wheels. The addition of computer controls and and a transmission allow these components to work together. Parallel hybrids can use a smaller battery pack and therefore rely mainly on regenerative braking to keep it recharged. However, when power demands are low, parallel hybrids also utilize the drive motor as a generator for supplemental recharging, much like an alternator in conventional cars.

Series Hybrid

This is the simplest hybrid configuration. In a series hybrid, the electric motor is is the only means of providing power to get your wheels turning. The motor receives electric power from either the battery pack or from a generator run by a gasoline engine. A computer determines how much of the power comes from the battery or the engine/generator set. Both the engine/generator and regenerative braking recharge the battery pack. The engine is typically smaller in a series drivetrain because it only has to meet average driving power demands; the battery pack is generally more powerful than the one in parallel hybrids in order to provide remaining peak driving power needs. This larger battery and motor, along with the generator, add to the cost, making series hybrids more expensive than parallel hybrids.

Comparison:

• The series hybrid can be charged off of the power grid, for convenience & much cheaper operation (< 20% of the cost of running on gas) with no loss of performance (except range), otherwise use the onboard generator, The parallel hybrid may be able to run off the power grid if you expand the battery pack, but with reduced performance.

• The series hybrid is much simpler in design & maintenance than the parallel hybrid. It does not need a clutch or transmission, no oil changes, spark plugs, fuel/oil filters except on the separate generator which can be removed or replaced easily. It does not need the complex control / interface between the gas engine & electric motor.

• The series hybrid has better acceleration due to the superiority of the much larger electric motor to the gas motor in this respect.

• The generator engine on the series hybrid can be much smaller, simpler and more efficient than on the parallel hybrid.

Hybrid Car - Basic knowledge

Depleting fuel resources and awareness about the environment issues in the late 1990s caused automobile manufacturers started to explore alternative forms of transportation, including vehicles powered by hybrid motor. Neither technology is particularly novel, yet it has a place in the future of transportation.

A hybrid car is a car that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the car. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). It combine an internal combustion engines (generally gasoline or Diesel engines, powered by a variety of fuels) and electric batteries to power electric motors.

A hybrid electric vehicle produces far less toxic emissions then standard gasoline only vehicles. The Toyota Prius, for example, has 90% less emissions then a comparably sized conventional car. The use of the electric motor for propulsion in low speed environments and the technology that allows a HEV to turn off the combustion engine when idling greatly reduces the emissions from the vehicle. Hybrid electric vehicles use smaller engines than conventional automobiles and have less moving parts that are prone to wearing out and creating waste. The most attractive environmental advantage to an HEV is the increased fuel efficiency of these types of vehicles. For most consumers, this is the most important advantage of all during times of high fuel prices and the environmental benefit of the vehicle consuming less fossil fuel often goes unrecognized.

Engine: More efficient than traditional engine found in most cars

Electric motor: Uses magnets to produce output

Battery: Charged by engine via generator when cruising, or electric motor when braking

Power split device: Allows engine and motor to be used independently, or together

Braking system: Energy from braking recharges battery, by using motor as generator

Inverter: Converts DC power from battery to AC power for motor

Toyota was the first to make a broadly accepted hybrid vehicle with the Toyota Prius in 1998. By early 2010, the Prius global cumulative sales were estimated at 1.6 million units. The 2010 Prius has an estimated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency combined fuel economy cycle of 50 miles per US gallon (4.7 L/100 km).