Hybrid Technology

The idea of the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) has been around for longer than a decade, as many people may not have originally thought. In fact, hybrid vehicles have been in development for the past century. The combination of an electric motor and a gasoline engine has been stirring in the minds of scientists and inventors alike for many years. Hybrid cars have surpassed many feats as it’s progressed through the years, such as increased gas mileage and reducing the pollutants that regular internal combustion engines expel. While the hybrid car is in high demand at the present time, some people believe these cars are just a quick resolution before bigger and better ideas, such as fuel cell vehicles, begin taking over the automobile industry. Still, the development of the hybrid car has had many effects on today’s society and may continue to in the future.

When the 1970s rolled around and the oil crisis struck, gas prices rose tremendously and people were very concerned about the dependency for oil and the idea of hybrid cars once again came up. The main financial support came from the U.S. Department of Energy, with a few automobile companies also investing some money. By the early 1990s Volkswagen was the only automaker that considered marketing a hybrid vehicle, only in Europe though. 1993 sparked a major event for the advancement of hybrid cars. The Department of Energy signed a five-year $138 million development agreement with General Motors and a $122 million agreement with Ford to design and build preproduction hybrid prototypes that could be marketed in less than 10 years. Four years later brought about a new generation of hybrid vehicles with the introduction of the Toyota Prius (Sperling, p. 101).

Today’s hybrids come in many different varieties such as mild or full and series or parallel. Mild hybrids require the use of an electric motor to assist the gas engine when extra power is needed. It can only move from the stopped position if the internal combustion engine is engaged. The mild hybrid can be broken down into 3 sub-systems. The Start/Stop system, which is also called a micro hybrid, will shut off the engine when the car would normally be idling and instantly restart the engine when pressure is applied to the accelerator. This type of system only increases fuel efficiency by approximately 10 percent and is the most basic of all hybrid vehicles. A few GM trucks use the start/stop feature. Some people question whether the micro hybrid should actually be considered a hybrid at all.

In a series hybrid vehicle the electric motor is the only thing turning the wheels. While it does have a gasoline engine, it does not have a direct connection to the drive train. Its main purpose is to power a generator, which either charges the batteries or turns the electric motor. Currently there are no series hybrids in mass production, although the Prius is considered to have a few characteristics of both the series and parallel (Sperling, p. 104).

Like the series hybrid, the parallel hybrid system is much more complex than the mild hybrid