The term ‘hybrid’ has been creating waves in the automotive industry. Hybrid is related to thrift and efficiency. The development of hybrid technology has become a solution for increased fuel prices. More over countries such as U.S. consider hybrid technology as an effective tool to reduce their excessive dependence for oil from foreign countries. Also hybrids have met the pollution standards set by the Environmental Pollution Agency (EPA) and therefore the emission rates produced by them are very low.

What does the term ‘Hybrid’ actually means by?

In simple terms we can define ‘hybrid’ as any vehicle having two or more sources of power that can provide propulsion directly or indirectly. All of us might have come across a hybrid vehicle at some point or other. A mo-ped can be pointed out as a good example for a hybrid vehicle as it is combined with two source of power- a gasoline engine with the pedal power of its rider. Similarly hybrid cars also have two source of power. The commonly used source of power in hybrid cars is the gasoline-electric engine.

Though hybrid cars have a lot of advantages, its sales was very low when compared to other vehicles. In the year 2006, Americans purchased only 250,000 hybrid cars where as the actual sales of car in that year was 17,000,000. This accounts for only a meager 1.5 percentage. The primary reason behind the low sales of hybrid cars is that there are only a limited number of vehicles available in the market.

More over the cost of the hybrid cars are too high when compared to an ordinary car. The reason behind the increased cost of hybrid cars is that in addition to the vehicle’s usual gasoline engine, they also have a regenerative braking system which helps to capture the energy which is wasted while slowing and braking. The energy thus recaptured will be stored in a battery. The hybrid car also has one or more electric motor to assist the vehicle in moving forward. In addition to these, hybrid cars also have an engine shut-off technology which helps in saving the fuel while the car is idling. These additional technologies increase the cost of the hybrid vehicles.

Performance of the Hybrid-car

Despite of having a bigger conventional gasoline engine, a hybrid car accommodates a smaller one which is more efficient than the bigger engine. When a bigger engine is used, it requires more power to accelerate the car quickly. This results in a lot of fuel wastage. On the other hand a smaller engine is used in a hybrid car. Thus performance of the car can be improved by employing a smaller engine with lighter parts

The engine in the hybrid car can perform like that of a conventional gasoline engine especially in highways and city limits. But when the car has to climb up a hill or to accelerate quickly it requires an extra force and this extra force comes from the electric motor and battery.

Thus two cars of same model having different engines will show difference in performance as well as in mileage. The car having hybrid engine uses less energy and gives more mileage where as the conventional engine requires more power to reach the particular level of speed. More over the hybrid engine can also move at a speed equivalent to the bigger conventional engine.

How does a smaller engine perform better than a bigger one?

It is because most of the conventional engines are designed in such a way that it requires peak power in all situations where as a hybrid engine is designed closer to the average power requirement. The energy thus wasted in a conventional engine is saved in a hybrid one.

Advantages of a Hybrid car

The major advantage of having a hybrid car is that it gives more mileage to your car in addition to the reduced emissions. Hybrid cars have been approved by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as the emissions made by them are eve lower than the set standards.

Some of the popular hybrid model cars are Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, Honda Insight, Honda Accord, Mercury Mariner, Nissan Altima, Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Escape etc. There are many other cars which are available both in hybrid as well as in conventional versions.