Hybrid Electric Vehicles Today
There are quite a range of hybrid Electric vehicles on the market today such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight,Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Toyota Highlander and Ford Escape. The Prius is manufactured at a volume of about 5000 per month, and Toyota recently announced that it is making a modest profit on these cars. The cost of HEVs is about $5000 more than comparable conventional vehicles, and their fuel economy is about twice that of their conventional counterparts. Their emissions meet the second strictest regulations in existence: California Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV).
How Do They Work?
Hybrid vehicles have a conventional engine (gasoline or diesel) as well as a large battery and an electric motor, so that the wheels of the car are driven by both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. There are various arrangements for these two motors. In the parallel hybrid car, both the conventional engine and the electric motor are attached to the driveshaft and the wheels of the car. In the series hybrid car, the conventional engine is used only to generate electricity, which then goes through a wire to an electric motor that drives the wheels. Combinations also exist; for example, the front wheels are driven by a conventional engine and the rear wheels by an electric motor.
Some hybrids, called “charge-depleting” or “plug-in,” have batteries that can be charged from mains power. Other hybrids, called “charge-sustaining,” do not have this ability — all the electricity that goes into the battery is produced by the internal combustion engine. All HEVs have a computer that is programmed to operate the car on either or both motors, depending on factors such as speed, power required, and amount of electricity left in the batteries.
The extra cost of an electric motor and battery in an HEV make sense because the internal combustion engine in a conventional car is very energy inefficient. Less than 20% of the energy of gasoline is actually used to drive the wheels of the car; most of the rest is lost as waste heat. In a conventional car, the engine is much more powerful than required to drive the car at a constant speed of say 100 km/hr because extra power is needed for accelerating the car in a reasonable time. Except when accelerating, this power is not really used, and most of the time, the engine operates inefficiently far below its capacity. The main losses of energy occur when the car is idling, braking, and driving at low speeds.
In an HEV, the electric motor assists in acceleration, which allows for a smaller and more efficient internal combustion engine. In addition, the engine does not idle: it is stopped when the car is standing still and immediately started when required. Furthermore, the electric motor acts in reverse as a generator when the car is braking, recovering the braking energy and feeding it into the battery. At low speeds, the car often uses only the electric motor, which has an efficiency of the order of 90%. At medium or high speeds, the internal combustion engine will operate (as required) at its most energy efficient point and produce more power than is needed by the car at that moment. The extra energy is fed into the battery, to be used later when required.
In a series hybrid vehicle, the internal combustion engine is not connected to the wheels of the car — it is used only to generate electricity, which powers the electric motor and is also fed into the battery at times when the car does not need all the energy produced. This internal combustion engine needs only to produce the average amount of power required by the car; it is much smaller than those in conventional cars, and it usually operates at its most efficient point and at constant speed.
In a plug-in or charge-depleting hybrid vehicle, the car battery can be charged from the mains power, and this electricity can then be used for all or part of the next trip that the car makes. The distance that the car can drive on the electricity stored in the battery varies widely from model to model, anywhere from less than 20 km up to 80 km.
Outlook
The outlook for hybrid vehicles is very positive for a variety of reasons. The HEV can easily be designed to equal or surpass the performance of conventional cars, and it can meet or exceed customer expectations. The extra cost of the car, currently about 5000, can be substantially reduced as manufacturing experience is acquired for the batteries, which currently cost about $3000, and for the other components
Hybrid vehicle technology can be used in most segments of the car market, including all mid- and high-priced passenger cars, city buses, and delivery trucks. It has fewer advantages for heavy trucks that drive long distances at constant speed and for low -cost small passenger cars, which are already fuel efficient and for which the extra purchase cost would be a major impediment.
Hybrid vehicle technology is a “step-out” technology in that it modifies an existing and proven technology, rather than replacing it completely with something that is totally different. This is a major advantage from the market introduction perspective: the changes can be introduced gradually, and the risk of major technical problems and high warranty costs after a few years is reduced. Another advantage is that no new infrastructure is required.
Hybrid vehicles have strong environmental advantages: they reduce noxious pollution, emissions of greenhouse gases, and energy consumption by half. They will be able to use all of the advanced fuels, such as ethanol, biodiesel, and natural gas, which will make them even more environmentally friendly. In countries where most of the electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants, hybrid vehicles will be environmentally friendlier than battery electric vehicles.
Great potential for improvement in hybrid technology still remains, not only in cost reduction but also in technical performance. (On the other hand, strategies that increase the performance of hybrid vehicles could degrade their potential fuel efficiency.)The key will be further improvements in battery performance, so that the battery will easily last for 8-10 years and the car will be able to drive on battery power for 20-30 km. (Some first-generation Prius models have already surpassed the 8-year/200,000-km threshold of battery life.)This would allow hybrid vehicles to drive on battery power with zero pollution in city centers and use their internal combustion engines only on the outskirts of a city or on long trips.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Governments can play a key role in supporting improved vehicle technologies and thereby achieving their clean air, greenhouse gas, and energy diversification objectives. Some car manufacturers have fulfilled their social responsibilities and introduced vehicles that are more environmentally friendly than conventional cars. It is now up to customers to buy these cars in large numbers. Conventional cars impose costs on society that are not paid by the car buyer but are borne by governments. These “external costs” are in the form of air pollution, greenhouse gases, climate change, dependence on imported petroleum, and the cost of securing oil supplies. Since governments pay these external costs, they have a strong and double justification for paying the higher purchase price of hybrid vehicles for their own fleets. Not only will their own cars reduce the external costs relative to conventional cars, but they will also help to build up market volume and allow manufacturers to reduce their costs to the point where hybrid vehicles become attractive for other car buyers.
Aside from buying hybrid vehicles for their own fleets, governments may also provide subsidies and tax incentives for buyers of hybrid vehicles, as has been enacted in the United States. In countries with an autonomous automobile industry, governments can encourage the manufacturers to continue to bring different models of hybrid vehicles to the market and support research in battery improvement and other enabling technologies.
For the short-term future (5-10 years), hybrid vehicles are the only practical way in which the environmental and energy objectives in the transportation sector can be pursued, especially because hybrid vehicles can easily be adjusted to operate on advanced or alternative fuels, such as biofuels and natural gas. For the longer term (10-20 years), the costs of fuel cells and advanced batteries might come down to a point where either fuel cell vehicles or battery electric vehicles become price competitive in certain market segments. However, depending on the primary energy that the fuel cells use, or the way electricity is generated for battery electric vehicles, there may be few or no environmental advantages compared with hybrid vehicles. It is likely that even in the longer term, future hybrid vehicles will be environmentally friendlier than the alternatives in many market segments.
The bottom line… Do hybrids really help the environment?
Hybrid vehicles are becoming the new trend for North Americans. Not only are they fuel efficient but they are also very good for the environment by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions.
The demand for hybrid vehicles has gone up quite a bit since 2004.
As for which hybrid vehicle is the best out there, it really depends on what vehicle is more efficient for you. The Toyota Prius is a much bigger version that can seat up to five people and can get 55-60 miles per gallon. The Prius comes with such features as a multi-information display panel that monitors fuel consumption and other data. The Honda Civic Hybrid is smaller but comes with all of the amenities, like the new multi-tiered instrument panel, a sophisticated audio system, and an available navigation system. With all of this, the car also gets 50 miles per gallon in the city and on the highway. While both vehicles are great, there is also a third hybrid vehicle to look at and that vehicle is the Ford Escape Hybrid. It’s a new spin on the Ford Escape and has great fuel efficiency. This Ford has a four-cylinder engine and gets about 40 miles per gallon, which may seem less than the other vehicles but will still save a good 40-50 percent off of your gasoline bill. Auto dealers say expect, over the next few years, to see more and more hybrids coming our way.
So, the next question would be how good are these hybrid vehicles on our environment. Well, first of all, the environmental issue is easy to answer, of course these cars are good for the environment. The Toyota Prius by itself produces 90 percent fewer harmful emissions than a regular gas engine. The 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid has a new plastic-resin fuel tank that does not produce any evaporative emissions. Also, the engines for these vehicles are getting smaller and lighter. For example, the Honda Insight has a small, efficient engine that weighs only 124 pounds, and is able to get 61 miles per gallon in the city and 70 miles per gallon on the highway, and it can accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 11 seconds.
The world today is thinking of environmental issues and technology is advancing every day. These new Hybrid vehicles may just be the key to all of the pollution and smog issues that people in urban areas have to consider, and even here in Alberta, it seems, some people are already thinking about it.
