A Brief History Of The Hybrid Vehicle
...tinkering with combinations of the electric motor and the gasoline engine, hybrid vehicles were dropped when gasoline-fueled vehicles became more reliable and easier to start, and gasoline fuel more readily available. Research and development of hybrid vehicles was revived by concern about oil dependency in the1970s and about air pollution in the late 1980s.
A number of hybrid vehicles have been built and tested since 1980. Some of these vehicles have impressed analysts with their performance and low levels of exhaust and petroleum consumption. Interest in hybrid vehicles jumped in late 1993 with the announcement of funding for two major collaborations. The US 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.[1]
All these were done because hybrid electric vehicles are expected to be the future of vehicles worldwide.
Definition
One considers a vehicle to be a hybrid when it combines two or more sources of power. For example, a mo-ped (a motorized pedal bike) is a hybrid because it combines the power of a gasoline engine with the pedal power of its rider.
Similarly, the gasoline-electric hybrid car is a combination of both an electric car and a gasoline-powered one. That is, it makes use of both electricity and gasoline to provide the energy to turn the wheels of the car.
Figure 1 shows a gas-powered car.
[2]
Components Of A Gasoline Powered Car
The 4-cylinder engine converts gasoline into motion so that the car can move. The easiest way it does this is to burn the gasoline inside the engine. Therefore is acts as an internal combustion engine i.e. combustion takes place internally. Gasoline powered car engines...
View Full Essay
