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does a hybrid car work? We're all familiar with gasoline powered cars, and most people have heard about our scene electric cars. A hybrid car is a combination of the two. Hybrid vehicle contains both a gasoline engine and an electric motor in an attempt to get the best of both worlds. The best way to understand the advantages of a hybrid vehicle is to think about a car traveling down a highway at the postage speed on level ground. In this case,
the engine is doing three things. First, it's overcoming rolling resistance in the drivetrain. Second, it's overcoming air resistance, and third it's powering accessories like the alternator and the air conditioner. The engine might need to produce no more than twenty horse power to carry this load. The reason why cars have a hundred or two hundred or three hundred horsepower engines is to handle acceleration from a standing stop, as
well as for passing and hill climbing. We only use the maximum horsepower rating for one percent of the driving time. The rest of the time we are carrying around the weight and friction of that much larger engine, and that wastes a lot of energy. In a pure hybrid vehicle, you have a complete electric car. It includes an electric motor to provide power to the wheels, as well as batteries to supply the motor with electricity. Then you have
a completely separate gasoline engine powering a generator. The engine is small, perhaps only twenty horsepower, and it's designed to run it just one speed for maximum efficiency. The purpose of this small, efficient engine is to provide enough power for the car at its cruising speed. During times of acceleration, the batteries provide the extra power necessary. When the car is decelerating or standing still, the batteries recharge. This sort of hybrid car is essentially an electric car with a
built in recharger for longer range. The advantage is that the small, efficient gasoline engine gets great mileage. The only problem with this traditional hybrid car is the weight. The car has to carry the weight of the electric motor, the generator, the gasoline engine, and the batteries. You don't need as many batteries as a pure electric car, so that saves some weight, but a full size electric motor plus a ten kilowatt generator can weigh several hundred pounds.
Most hybrid vehicles, therefore, try to strike a compromise. They use a larger gasoline engine that's connected directly to the drive train, along with a smaller electric motor attached to the engine or the transmission. The gasoline engine provides most of the car's power, with the electric motor adding extra power is needed for acceleration. Because the electric motor can double as a generator during breaking and only has to run part of the time, it can be extremely light.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the gasoline engine must run at varying speeds, which reduces its efficiency. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is It How staff works dot Com streaming TV shows and movies directly to your home is a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix Member, you can instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device, or television. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today.