Hybrid cars use a combination of a gasoline engine and electric power to reach maximum efficiency. But how do all the different parts mix the gas and electric power together?
Read on for a look at the six main components that make up pretty much any hybrid vehicle, and how they help improve your mileage.
Hybrid Car Confusion
The majority of drivers in the world have never driven a hybrid car before. Even fewer know that they run by way of an internal combustion gasoline engine and an electric motor powered by a battery. To a far lesser extent, no one really knows how that works makes the car really move.
The fact is that you are given a choice between how much electricity from that electric motor you can use for your driving and the amount of gasoline you have in your internal combustion engine.
Ideally, you would use both so as to keep both the battery power and gasoline up. The battery in the hybrid is much larger than your everyday conventional car battery and much smaller than that of a pure electric vehicle like a Tesla.
Ignoring the fact that not only does the hybrid battery have to power the air conditioner, stereo, etc, it also has to power some of the actual movement of the vehicle too, which makes it somewhat larger and costlier than your average car battery.
Main Components of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle
To understand just how a hybrid vehicle works, you basically need to understand its structure. There are, of course, many features that make up the parts of a hybrid vehicle, but below are the 6 main parts of its structure.
#1. Gasoline Engine.
The hybrid vehicle still has a gasoline engine. This remains to be the main power source of the vehicle since 1 gallon of gasoline has the same energy as half a ton of battery power.
#2. Electric Motor.
This is what makes the hybrid vehicle particularly special. The electric motor has the ability to take power from the battery and accelerate the vehicle. But it can also give power back to the battery if you slow the vehicle down.
#3. Fuel Tank.
You will still have a fuel tank and store your gasoline in there, like in a conventional vehicle. Thanks to the advanced technology in hybrid cars, the gas won’t need to be used as much, though. As a result, you will get better fuel efficiency and less emissions too.
#4. Transmission.
Most hybrid vehicles will still use a conventional transmission that you would find in a regular gasoline car. That said, are new transmissions being built specifically for certain hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius?
#5. Batteries.
The batteries are what power the electric motor of a hybrid car. Not only that, but the batteries can actually take power back from the electric motor, too. This is one way their lifespan can be preserved.
#6. Generator.
If you have a series hybrid vehicle, it has a generator that gets powered by the gasoline engine.
From there, the generator can then generate power for the electric motor and help recharge the battery. It is essentially a way of converting gasoline into electrical energy for the motor and battery.
Additional Information
Some hybrids you can plug in for recharging the battery when you get home, and others do not have this feature. Plug-in hybrids are deemed “Electric Vehicles,” while the others you can’t plug in are simply hybrid vehicles.
Those you can plug in will have an “electric-only drive” feature, which lets you power the motion without using gasoline, as in a totally electric car. The only problem is that you can only drive at low speeds of between 10 and 30 miles per hour.
The electric motor is not strong enough to propel the vehicle at any higher speed unless you call upon the gasoline engine for more power. If you try to drive faster than 30 mph while you are in the “electric-only drive” mode, then you will quickly run out of battery power and then be driving on gasoline only, like in a normal car.