Hybrid Vehicle
When the term hybrid vehicle
is used, it most often refers to a Hybrid electric vehicle. These encompass
such vehicles as the Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Ford Escape
Hybrid, Honda Insight and others.
A petroleum-electric hybrid most commonly uses internal combustion engines
(generally gasoline or Diesel engines, powered by a variety of fuels)
and electric batteries to power electric motors. There are many types
of petroleum-electric hybrid drive trains from Full hybrid to Mild hybrid
which offer varying advantages and disadvantages
In addition to vehicles
that use two or more different devices for propulsion, some also consider
vehicles that use distinct energy input types ("fuels") using the same
tank and engine to be hybrids, although to avoid confusion with hybrids
as described above and to use correctly the terms, these are described
as dual mode vehicles.
A hybrid vehicle (HV) is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power
sources to propel the vehicle such as:
The term most commonly refers to Hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) which
includes internal combustion engines and electric motors (generally
powered by electric batteries, other rechargeable energy storage system
-RESS- or overhead wires).
Some electric trolleybuses
can switch between an on board diesel engine and overhead electrical
power depending on conditions (see dual mode bus). In principle, this
could be combined with a battery subsystem to create a true plug-in
hybrid trolleybus, although as of 2006, no such design seems to have
been announced.
Flexible-fuel vehicles
can use a mixture of input fuels (petroleum and bio-fuels) in one tank
— typically gasoline and bio-ethanol or bio-butanol, though diesel-bio-diesel
vehicles would also qualify. Liquified petroleum gas and natural gas
are very different from each other and cannot be used in the same tanks,
so it would be impossible to build an (LPG-NG) flexible fuel system.
Some vehicles have been modified to use another fuel source if it is
available, such as cars modified to run on autogas (LPG) and diesels
modified to run on waste vegetable oil that has not been processed into
bio-diesel.
Power-assist mechanisms for bicycles and other human-powered vehicles
are also included.
A Plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEV) is an emerging type of automobile which can use traditional
liquid combustibles and electricity as fuels. Such vehicles could reduce
fossil fuel consumption, pollution, and operating costs. If equipped
with vehicle to grid technology they could also help stabilize the electric
grid by acting as load balance devices. By reducing the amount of liquid
fuel required they could also help bio-fuels meet a larger portion of
our fuel demands.
|
