How to Conserve More Fuel with Hybrid Cars?
Most hybrid cars are made for fuel efficiency but you can further squeeze extra miles out of a gallon of gasoline buy adapting the same good driving habits you do in your gasoline-engine vehicles.
1. Go easy on the brakes. Your hybrid car has the regenerative braking system that recaptures the energy lost from braking and stores it back to your batteries. If you brake slowly, you give your electric motor more time to store power thus, recovering more energy back to the batteries. If you brake hard and abrupt, the regenerative braking system will not be able to recapture much of this energy and your brakes will take most of the work.
2. Drive at slow speed. When you drive at a slow speed, you are running the electric motor. This saves a lot of gas. Also high speed driving requires your engine to produce extra power to drive the car forward and push it through the air. This consumes more gas just to overcome the aerodynamic drag. (Take note: the air is much denser on snowy, rainy, and slushy conditions. This makes the engine consumes more fuel to push the vehicle through the air.)
How to Conserve More Fuel with Hybrid Cars?
Most hybrid cars are made for fuel efficiency but you can further squeeze extra miles out of a gallon of gasoline buy adapting the same good driving habits you do in your gasoline-engine vehicles.
1. Go easy on the brakes. Your hybrid car has the regenerative braking system that recaptures the energy lost from braking and stores it back to your batteries. If you brake slowly, you give your electric motor more time to store power thus, recovering more energy back to the batteries. If you brake hard and abrupt, the regenerative braking system will not be able to recapture much of this energy and your brakes will take most of the work.
2. Drive at slow speed. When you drive at a slow speed, you are running the electric motor. This saves a lot of gas. Also high speed driving requires your engine to produce extra power to drive the car forward and push it through the air. This consumes more gas just to overcome the aerodynamic drag. (Take note: the air is much denser on snowy, rainy, and slushy conditions. This makes the engine consumes more fuel to push the vehicle through the air.)
3. Avoid quick acceleration. The electric motor can only give your car a certain amount of power. When you require more speed and step on the gas pedal, the combustion engine kicks in to provide that extra speed you need, thus consuming more fuel. Quick acceleration in gasoline- or diesel-engine car wastes a lot of energy and so with hybrid vehicles. If you need to accelerate, do it gradually if possible.
4. Check your tire pressure. Tires are made to improve safety and the quality of the ride. It is not actually made for efficiency but you can actually use the tire to significantly improve your gas mileage. Use and maintain the maximum recommended tire pressure for your car on the sidewall and not the psi supplied by the manufacturer on the doorframe. Also use low-resistance tires for better mileage.
5. Avoid rush hour. Stop-and-go traffic consumes a lot of gas.
6. Use low octane gasoline. Not only it is cheaper, vehicles are actually designed to run well on low octane gas. Check your manual.
7. Glide. If you are comfortable with driving back and forth to neutral, you can get the best out of your speed. Coasting in neutral gives you a longer cruise and better use of energy.
9.03.2008
How Does Hybrid Electric Vehicle Work?
You probably own a gasoline- or diesel-engine car. You may have heard of electric vehicles too. A hybrid vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a combination of both. Hybrid vehicles utilize two or more sources of energy for propulsion. In the case of HEVs, a combustion engine and an electric motor are used.
How it works depends on the type of drive train it has. A hybrid vehicle can either have a parallel or series or parallel-series drive train.
How Does Hybrid Electric Vehicle Work?
You probably own a gasoline- or diesel-engine car. You may have heard of electric vehicles too. A hybrid vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a combination of both. Hybrid vehicles utilize two or more sources of energy for propulsion. In the case of HEVs, a combustion engine and an electric motor are used.
How it works depends on the type of drive train it has. A hybrid vehicle can either have a parallel or series or parallel-series drive train.
Parallel Hybrid
The parallel hybrid car has a gas tank, a combustion engine, transmission, electric motor, and batteries.
A parallel hybrid is designed to run directly from either the combustion engine or the electric motor. It can run using both the engine and the motor. As a conventional vehicle, the parallel hybrid draws its power from the combustion engine which will then drive the transmission that turns the wheels. If it is using the electric motor, the car draws its power from the batteries. The energy from the batteries will then power the electric motor that drives the transmission and turns the wheel.
Both the combustion engine and the electric motor are used at the same time during quick acceleration, on steep ascend, or when either the engine or the motor needs additional boost.
Since the engine is directly connected to the wheels in a parallel drive train, it eliminates the inefficiency of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy and back. This makes a very effective vehicle to drive on the highway.
Series Hybrid
The series hybrid car also has a gas tank, a combustion engine, transmission, electric motor, and batteries with the addition of the generator. The generator can be the electric motor or it can be another separate component.
The series configuration is the simplest among the 3. The engine is not connected to the transmission rather it is connected to the electric motor. This means that the transmission can be driven only by the electric motor which draws its energy from the battery pack, the engine or the generator.
A hybrid car with a series drive train is more suited for city driving conditions since the engine will not be subjected to the varying speed demands (stop, go, and idle) that contributes to fuel consumption.
Series-Parallel Hybrid
The series-parallel configuration solves the individual problems of the parallel and series hybrid. By combining the 2 designs, the transmission can be directly connected to the engine or can be separated for optimum fuel consumption. The Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid use this technology.
How it works depends on the type of drive train it has. A hybrid vehicle can either have a parallel or series or parallel-series drive train.
How Does Hybrid Electric Vehicle Work?
You probably own a gasoline- or diesel-engine car. You may have heard of electric vehicles too. A hybrid vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a combination of both. Hybrid vehicles utilize two or more sources of energy for propulsion. In the case of HEVs, a combustion engine and an electric motor are used.
How it works depends on the type of drive train it has. A hybrid vehicle can either have a parallel or series or parallel-series drive train.
Parallel Hybrid
The parallel hybrid car has a gas tank, a combustion engine, transmission, electric motor, and batteries.
A parallel hybrid is designed to run directly from either the combustion engine or the electric motor. It can run using both the engine and the motor. As a conventional vehicle, the parallel hybrid draws its power from the combustion engine which will then drive the transmission that turns the wheels. If it is using the electric motor, the car draws its power from the batteries. The energy from the batteries will then power the electric motor that drives the transmission and turns the wheel.
Both the combustion engine and the electric motor are used at the same time during quick acceleration, on steep ascend, or when either the engine or the motor needs additional boost.
Since the engine is directly connected to the wheels in a parallel drive train, it eliminates the inefficiency of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy and back. This makes a very effective vehicle to drive on the highway.
Series Hybrid
The series hybrid car also has a gas tank, a combustion engine, transmission, electric motor, and batteries with the addition of the generator. The generator can be the electric motor or it can be another separate component.
The series configuration is the simplest among the 3. The engine is not connected to the transmission rather it is connected to the electric motor. This means that the transmission can be driven only by the electric motor which draws its energy from the battery pack, the engine or the generator.
A hybrid car with a series drive train is more suited for city driving conditions since the engine will not be subjected to the varying speed demands (stop, go, and idle) that contributes to fuel consumption.
Series-Parallel Hybrid
The series-parallel configuration solves the individual problems of the parallel and series hybrid. By combining the 2 designs, the transmission can be directly connected to the engine or can be separated for optimum fuel consumption. The Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid use this technology.
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