Understanding How Hybrid Cars Work

More Americans are weighing whether to sell conventional gas-guzzling clunkersand opting for a more innovative car and instead buying a more cutting edge type of car~ and purchasing a new kind of car} that can cut fuel consumption by half. These high tech vehicles are labeled as hybrid cars. What’s more, hybrid vehicles release less greenhouse gasses into the atmospherethat the cars that preceded them. That means, the more of us there are driving hybrid cars, everyone will be better off.

Now that you know a little more about why so many are interested in hybrids you might also be interested to learn a bit about what makes them work.

How Hybrid Cars Work

Overall, what hybrids do is actually use two types of energy, gas and electricity to power the car. To begin with, it’s important to know that the electric part of the engine is only working while the car is idling and this is when the gasoline engine is turned off. That meansthe hybrid is an electric car while sitting in traffic or at lights. This helps to explain why you can hardly hear a hybrid while it’s idling in a driveway or at an intersection. This is also why it can effectively conserve fuel consumption. Once you step on the accelerator, the internal combustion engine will automatically start up again. There are even hybrid vehicles that are able to run solely on electric power. This is an especially desirable feature for those who just use the car for quick local trips. You may not need to gas up the car for a considerable period of time.

However, in any hybrid, long trips will require fuel. Perhaps, you could imagine that the combustion engine is just a backup for the more efficient electric one.

That’s all it takes- a battery to hold backup energy, a generator, an internal combustion engine, a fuel tank,plus a motor that’s electric.

Now that you know how hybrid cars work, you probably also have a better handle as to why you should be driving one. Having a hybrid in your driveway will not only cut down on the amount of fuel you put into your gas tank each month, but you will also help save the environment by emitting far lower toxic fumes than conventional cars.

Fuel-Cell Cars: The Wave of the Future?

hydrogen car
Andrew Beckers asked:


Hydrogen fuel cell cars are expensive and impractical. So why would we even consider them? With gasoline prices well over $4 per gallon and reduction of CO2 emissions a priority, all alternative fuels and future car technologies are getting a closer scrutiny these days. Not only that, if a proper infrastructure was created, Hydrogen could very well be the world’s next propulsion fuel. Its cheap and abundant…so what are we waiting for?

What are they, and how do they work?

Hydrogen can be burned in a combustion engine or be converted back into electricity through a fuel cell. In an internal combustion automotive engine, gasoline or hydrogen can be used in a dual-fuel system that will suffice until a widespread hydrogen infrastructure can be built. These dual fuel cell systems are much like the electric hybrids like Toyato’s Prius, yet they use hydrogen rather than electricity to supplement the gasoline.

In the long-term, with an infrastructure in place, hydrogen-on-demand vehicles can use either a hydrogen compound for internal combustion, or a fuel cell can create electro-mechanical energy and water. A fuel cell isn’t as complicated as a conventional gas or diesel engine and isn’t subject to high temperatures, corrosion or some of the structural weaknesses found in other types of engines. This affords a flexibility and durability for Hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen is processed through the fuel cell and combined with oxygen to create electricity. This newly formed energy is sent to pistons to propel the car forward (or reverse if you like). These fuel cell cars promise zero emissions and pollutants, with the only tailpipe emission being water vapor. Fuel-Cells are basically a combination of a battery and an engine making them a very unique advancement in car propulsion systems. Every year more and more efficient fuel cells are churned out by engineers and factories propelling the hydrogen car possibilities forward. Fuel-Cell conventions and conglomerates abound and with more and more government grants focusing on Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Car development, the future continues to get brighter for Hydrogen Fuel-Cell cars.

While there is concern that putting hydrogen fuel cell cars on the road is as bad of an idea as was the ill-fated Hindenburg, experts say the two aren’t related, and recent advances in car technology include development of safe, on-board hydrogen storage systems.

Infrastructure and hydrogen highways.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a hydrogen highway is a chain of hydrogen-equipped filling stations along a road. What will it take to make it happen? Norway started the HyNor Project in 2006; Japan has several stations, as does Germany, and California now reports having 25 stations in place from San Diego to Sacramento. All of these stations will add to a momentum of change and will hopefully give rise to a new determination to improve on present Hydrogen powered vehicle prototypes in order to begin to switch our fleet of petroleum based cars. The Hydrogen car will arrive even if it takes time: The future is now.



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