Hybrids

The term Hybrid Vehicle refers to a type of automobile that has two or more forms of power source, the most common type of Hybrid at the moment consists of a combonation of the internal combustion engine and an electric motor, these sources can etheir individualy power the vehicle in different situations or work together to achieve the best economy possible.

The main goal set by hybrid vehicle engineers is to achieve the best over-all economy that can be achieved without loss of power comparing to normal internal combustion type vehicles, aswell as making it a must to reduce our planets carbon foot-print.


Today im going to cover the three main types of Hybrid vehicles, Series Hybrid, Parallel Hybird and Power-Split/Series-Parallel.

Series Hybrid

Series Hybrids are probably the least complex of the 3 main types of Hybrids.

 

A series hybrid is generally powered by an electric engine which drives the differential to provide torque to the wheels, by having an electric engine distributing power to the wheels via the dif eliminates the need of a mechanical transmission which can be a big bonus due to the reduction in weight, also the reduction in chance of part failure.

 

What powers this electrical engine you may ask? Well this is where the Hybrid part comes into play, an internal combustion engine is placed in series with the electric motor, this engine does not take any part in providing torque to the wheels, this engine actually recharges the storage point of the electrical energy (the battery) where the energy needed to power the electric motor is stored. The internal combustion engine powers a generator which generates electrical energy which is then stored in the battery thus allowing power to be consumed by the electric engine then any remaining energy can be stored.

Some series parallel vehicles are designed to be plugged into your homes main electrical grid to recharge the energy source to keep down the running costs of the internal combustion engine.

The electric engine can also act as an electrical generator to, this term is known as Regenerative Braking. Basically the vehicle will experience Kinetic or potential energy of some kind through it's journey, the vehicles electric engine can harness this energy through the drivetrain allowing it to be converted to electrical consumable energy.

Here is an example of how Kinetic energy can be harnessed and used as potential energy;

 

Power-Split Hybrid

Power-split type Hybrids are the most common form of Hybrid vehicle found in our society currently.

The Power-split Hybrid consists of an Internal combustion engine and an Electrical engine. The most common form of this hybrid is the Toyota Prius, this works by having two sources of power with the intent of both power sources working together to achieve torque through a mechanical gearbox and dif. The electrical engine will power the drive train at low speeds/low acceleration, usually from stand still to allow a lower energy consumption, then when the vehicle feels it required to use more power for top speed and fast acceleration the internal combustion engine will kick in and assist the electrical engine thus giving high torque to the differential via the transmission.