Hybrid Cars – Improved Mileage and Reduced Emissions

The hybrid-car, designed to counter the high price of gasoline and the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment, is a cross between a gasoline-powered car and an electric car.

• A gas-powered car has a fuel tank that supplies gasoline to the engine. The engine responds by turning a transmission which ultimately turns the wheels.
• An electric car uses a set of batteries to provide electricity to a motor, which turns a transmission which turns the wheels.
• Reduce environmental emissions, yet overcome the shortcomings of current electric car technologies.

The criteria for a car to be deemed acceptable for broad application are quite simple:

• It must have a range of at least 300 miles before refueling.
• Refueling must be quick and easy.
• It must be able to keep up with the other traffic.

The gas-powered car certainly meets these criteria, but produces a lot of pollution, generally at less than desired gas mileage. The electric car produces little, if any, pollution but is limited in range to between 50 and 100 miles between charges. Further, the electric car is slow and recharging is inconvenient and slow. The hybrid car:

• Uses a smaller gasoline engine with advanced technologies to reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency.
• Uses an electric motor that also acts as a generator such that energy is drawn from the batteries as the car accelerates and return energy to the batteries as the car slows down.

 Hybrid Cars Improve Mileage

The smaller, more efficient engine combined with the following operational tactics and technological features contributes to the improved fuel economy of hybrid cars:

• Contrary to the normal operation of a gas-powered car, in applying the brakes of a hybrid car, some of the kinetic energy from the moving car (prior to braking) is captured and stored in the battery for future use. In effect, the electric motor acts as a generator and charges the batteries while the car is slowing down.
• Because it has an alternate power source, an electric motor and batteries, it does not have to rely on the gasoline engine all of the time. In fact, at the slower speeds the where fuel efficiency is usually a challenge, the electric motor overrides the gasoline engine. But at higher speeds, where fuel use is more efficient, the opposite is true.
• Many of the hybrid cars are designed to reduce aerodynamic drag.
• Hybrid cars use special low-rolling resistance tires that are stiffer and inflated to a higher pressure than conventional tires, resulting in half the drag of these regular tires.
• Many of the hybrid cars use lighter weight materials like carbon fiber, aluminum and magnesium to increase mileage.

And, notwithstanding the hybrid-car specific features that contribute to improved mileage, the standard operating practices of driving slower, maintaining a constant speed and avoiding abrupt stops, that have applied to gas-powered cars also apply to hybrid cars.

Hybrid Cars Reduce Tailpipe Emissions

In reviewing the emission standards across the U.S. it is important to note that the amount of pollution allowed is independent of mileage. However, if one car burns twice as much gas to cover the same distance as another, it stands to reason that it will generate two times the amount of pollution, and that pollution will have to be removed by the emissions control equipment on the car. So decreasing fuel consumption, a key benefit of hybrid cars, is among the surest ways to decrease emissions, particularly as not all pollutants are regulated nor mitigated at the exhaust.