How exactly does a hibird car work?

(2010-05-30 19:54:38)

1. Alexis Says: A hybrid is a car that uses a combination of battery powered electric motors as well as a gas engine to power the vehicle. In start and stop driving the electric motor generally does most of the work as long a battery power allows. This dramatically improves fuel economy which reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, an issue right now with society.

Each auto maker has their own version of the hybrid system so they don't all work the same. The general idea of how they work is when you are stopped the engine is off and when you hit the gas an electric motor powered by the battery makes the car go when the battery charge runs low or speed gets to high for the motor to handle the gas engine cranks up and takes over. While the engine is running it is also charging the alternator. These systems also use the friction created by applying the brakes to create power and charge the battery.

The next generation of hybrids is getting ready to come out it's called PHEV (plug in hybrid electric vehicle) This system uses bigger batteries and more powerful electric motors capable of powering the car for several miles. The only thing the gas engine is used for in this system is as a generator to recharge the batteries. When parked the car can be plugged in to recharge so for short commutes to work and back it's possible to not use any gas at all (depending on how your power plant produces energy). Battery technology combined with expense limits the range this vehicle can travel (the chevy volt is expected to have a range of 40 miles between charges) so the gas engine is still necessary. Given the rate of current advancement completely electric vehicles may become quite common in the near future.

2. carguy Says: go to yahoo search...how it works/Hybrid car

3. pedro7of9 Says: when your driving it switches from gas to electric and when you stop your car shuts off

4. purplehaze515 Says: I'm going to assume you mean Hybrid and not Hibird.

A hybrid vehicle has a gas engine that burns gas for power to move the car and an electric motor that uses electricity from batteries to move the car. The cars computer can turn off the gas engine and turn on the electric motor to conserve gas when you are cruising down the highway. It will then turn off the electric motor and tuen on the gas engine when you need more power, like driving around town.

That's not the complete story on how it works but it's a good basic start.