Introduction To The Electric Hybrid Car – The Basics You Need To Know
Posted by Admin at 21 May 2023, at 17 : 25 PM
Buying an electric hybrid car is the best investment you can make. Even the CEO of DaimlerChrysler has admitted that there is a clear relationship between the climate change and the CO2 emissions, that’s why the leading auto-manufacturers are investing heavily in the development of electric hybrid vehicles, with Toyota currently holding the number one position. A hybrid Electric Vehicle, shortly HEV, is a vehicle that combines a traditional internal combustion engine with an on-board rechargeable energy storage system.
The problem with electric cars is that they only rely on one or more electric motors, but the batteries have limited storage capacity and have an environmental impact through their construction, use, disposal or recycling. Hybrid vehicles on the other hand provide consumers the best of both worlds – electric and conventional cars.
A hybrid is any vehicle that combines two or more source of power. In the case of electric hybrids, we have a combination of a rechargeable battery and gasoline. Electric hybrids are often lighter and have a more aerodynamic shape with a very small drag coefficient. Tires are stiffer and inflated higher to reduce drag even further.
An electric hybrid car uses a rechargeable battery, which is constructed quite differently that the conventional lead acid battery (it still has one too). This battery is called deep cycle battery, because its construction allows the battery to be fully discharged and recharged over and over again. Today Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) is being used for hybrid batteries instead of lead acid in order to reduce weight and deliver more energy in a smaller package. The latest Prius and Civic Hybrid use a NiMH prismatic design battery.
The Toyota Pirus is one of the icons of the electric hybrid generation of cars. The Japans have invested heavily in this project, which is now beginning to pay of as there are more than 750,000 units on roads throughout the world. The Toyota team made history when they released the world’s first gas-electric car in December 1997. Now, ten years later, the Pirus is perhaps the best, most reasonable and economic car in a world that is on the edge of an environmental crisis.
The problem with electric hybrid cars is that the US market and majority of US population is still not completely aware of the global climate crisis that is currently taking place. The CO2 emissions are directly related with all the bad climate changes and things can only get worse if we continue to run our cars on fuel. The increased emission of CO2, based on fossil fuels results in an altered climate and thinned ozone layer. The seasons have shifted and changed; there is an increased probability for storms, floods; the weather is unpredictable in the long run; hot and cold “waves” succeed each other. But it seems that the average Joe doesn’t care about all that and the US market is not ready to embrace hybrid electric cars. Consumers right now, are not interested in fuel economy and they won’t accept any compromise of today’s performance levels. In fact, they want more performance with each new model. Perhaps the reason is that America is still half the price of Japan or Europe on gas price. But that won’t last forever.