Have you pulled the car up to the gas pump lately and been shocked by the high price of gasoline? As the pump clicked past $ 20, $ 30, $ 40 or $ 50, maybe you think about trading your car for something to get better mileage. Maybe you’re worried that your car is contributing to global warming.
The automotive industry has technology to solve these problems. It is hybrid. There are plenty of hybrid models on the market these days; most car manufacturers announced plans to produce their own versions.
How hybrid cars work? What’s under the hood to give you 20 or 30 more miles per gallon than the standard car? And does it pollute less just because it’s getting better gas mileage? In this article we will help you understand how this technology works, and we will also give you some tips on how to run a hybrid car for maximum efficiency.
Many people have probably owned a hybrid car at a time. For example, a mo PED (a motorized pedal bike) is a hybrid because it combines the power of a gasoline engine with the pedal power of its rider. Actually, hybrid cars all around us. Most of the locomotives we see pulling trains are diesel-electric hybrids. Cities like Seattle have diesel-electric buses – these can draw power from overhead wires or run on diesel when they are away from the wires. Giant mining trucks are often diesel-electric hybrids. Submarines are also hybrid vehicles – some are nuclear-electric and some are diesel-electric. Any vehicle that combines two or more sources of power that can directly or indirectly provide propulsion power is a hybrid. Most hybrid cars on the road right now is gasoline-electric hybrids, but the French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has two diesel-electric hybrid cars in the works. Since gasoline hybrids are the kind you find in your local car dealership, we will focus on them in this article.
