HYBRIDS

A hybrid car is one that uses more than one means to power it self, that means combining a normal petrol or diesel engine with an electric motor.
vehicles are called hybrids because they use both a small internal combustion engine (ICE)
and an electric motor to obtain maximum power and fuel economy with minimum emissions.

The most important advantages of a hybrid is that it uses lesser fuel and emits lesser CO2 than
conventional non-hybrid vehicles.
Hybrids also use an internal combustion engine—and can be fueled like normal cars—but also have an electric motor and battery, and can be partially or wholly powered by electricity.

By using both a conventional engine and electric motor, hybrids achieve significantly
better fuel efficiency than non-hybrid. They also pollute less and save drivers money through fuel savings.
The more innovative hybrids have larger batteries and can recharge their batteries from an outlet, allowing them to drive extended distances on
electricity before switching to gasoline or diesel. these cars can offer improved environmental performance and
increased fuel savings by substituting grid electricity for gasoline.

How do hybrids work?

Hybrids are powered by either a petrol or diesel engine and an electric motor. However, different manufacturers have created different ways of merging the two power-trains into one.

The common types of hybrids

Conventional hybrids:

In the Toyota Prius, for instance, probably the best known hybrid, each of the power sources can drive the car separately or they can work together. At low speeds, the engine is turned off and the car is driven only by the electric motor. Then, when
maximum acceleration is needed, both work together. At stages between, any excess power generated by the engine is used to recharge the
batteries that power the electric motor.
The battery is big enough that the electric motor can power the
car for up to 1.25 miles. Toyota also uses this system in the Yaris and Auris hatchbacks and Prius+ MPV hybrids, while cars from Audi, BMW, Citroen, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes, Peugeot, Porsche and Volkswagen work
on the same basis.
The Honda Insight and the Honda Jazz are slightly different. Here, a relatively small conventional engine uses an electric motor to give it extra help when required. The big difference is that the electric motor is not capable of powering the car on its own.

Plug-in hybrids:
There is also the ‘plug-in hybrids’
which, as the name implies, can be plugged into an electric outlet to recharge their batteries, as well as being charged on the move. Effectively, they are a halfway house between
conventional hybrids and full electric vehicles.
Although they have a conventional engine, they also have larger batteries than regular hybrids and can drive longer distances on electric power alone - up to 30 miles in some cases. Toyota produces a plug-in version of the Prius, while Volvo has a diesel-hybrid V60 and Mitsubishi's petrol-powered Outlander PHEV is the only plug-in SUV.
The Vauxhall Ampera and Chevrolet Volt works slightly differently. In these two cars drive always comes from the electric motor; the petrol engine is just there to act as a generator to charge the battery pack when it starts running out.

TWO-MODE HYBRIDS:

Instead of the large storage battery found on conventional hybrids, two-mode hybrids use
smaller batteries and two electric motors located inside an automatic transmission with two sets of gears — one for the ICE and the other to amplify the power of the electric motors. The
transmission can function as a continuously variable transmission, as well. In one mode, at lower speeds, the vehicle can run with one or both
electric motors, with or without the ICE, or on the ICE alone. At higher speeds, the second mode
kicks in, and the ICE runs continuously in its higher gear ratios.

Advantages of having a hybrid!

The main reason that hybrid cars where developed was to help solve the pollution problems that are caused by conventional, fuel ran cars. While they still use some amounts of fuel, it is much less than normal vehicles. They release a drastically lower
amount of carbon emissions.

Automatic Start/Stop. Automatically shuts off the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop and restarts it when the accelerator is pressed. This reduces wasted energy from
idling.

Another great benefit of driving a hybrid vehicle is the fact that is uses a significantly lower amount of gas than traditional cars do. This is because all of the energy that would normally be wasted, like moving from a stop, the air conditioner, and other things, are powered by the battery instead of the fuel. Along with using less gas, hybrid cars have very high gas mileage, which saves you even more money.

Another fuel-saving feature of the hybrid is regenerative braking! Conventional cars rely entirely on friction brakes to slow down, dissipating the vehicle's kinetic energy as heat. Regenerative braking allows some of that energy to be
captured, which means that you
don’t have to charge it before use. Every time you break, the energy you are stopping is harnesses and used to regenerate the battery in the vehicle

Quiet As A Mouse When you start up a hybrid vehicle, yo may not even realise it! The engine is so quiet that you can hardly hear it at all, even when you are driving down the road. The unique engine and power
supplies are the cause of this silence.

The electric motor provides power to assist the engine in
accelerating, passing, or hill climbing. This allows a smaller, more-efficient engine to be
used. In some hybrids, the electric motor alone propels the vehicle at low speeds, where gasoline engines are least efficient.

They also command higher resale values. Hybrid cars are more expensive initially, but save
you quite a pretty penny in the long run. If you have a hybrid car and plan to sell it, you can have better profit out of it.

The Disadvantages of owning a Hybrid Cars

In order to boost the amount of fuel that is saved, the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles try to make them as light as possible. They do this by using
very light materials, and removing any unnecessary
things. The result of this isn’t only better gas mileage, but very poor handling as well. It can be difficult to control a hybrid car, especially in windy or unstable weather conditions.

The initial costs of buying a hybrid car can be nearly
15 thousand dollars more than the same car in a traditional model!!! If you are not planning to drive the car long distances, or even much at all, then a
hybrid car doesn’t have the return on investment that people anticipate.

With every new piece of technology comes the need for people who know how to work on and fix it. The same is true with hybrid cars. Since they have not been around for a very long time, it is very expensive to have any type of maintenance done on them.

Danger! Since the materials of the vehicle are made out of
light weight things, the amount of safety that the vehicle has is highly compromised. If a hybrid car is in a high impact collision, the materials that are protecting the passengers and drivers can not do their job as well.


Important Facts About Hybrid Cars

Hybrid cars produce 90 percent less pollutants than traditional vehicles.

Up to 25 percent of your fuel costs are saved with a hybrid vehicle.

The very first hybrid car that was made commercially available was the Toyota Prius, which
was first sold in 1997 in Japan.

4 percent of all cars on the road are hybrids.


Making Your Decision

Deciding whether or not a hybrid car is right for you involves more than just a desire to be environmentally friendly. You have to look at the resources in your location that can help you maintain and sustain the car.

Depending on the type of car you purchase you may need mechanics that are familiar
with it or an alternate fuel source.

Even if you do purchase a hybrid car there is more you can do to lessen your effect on the environment. One of the most important considerations is how you drive. You can replace many of your car trips by using public transportation, carpooling or even riding a bicycle.
Also, planning to use the car more effectively can reduce the overall number of trips you are making each week.
Hybrid or not, the less you
drive the better it is for the environment.


common repairs for hybrid cars

Weak batteries inherent in hybrid vehicles means that you’re a lot more likely to require a new battery a lot sooner than you would in a standard car. The trouble here is that replacing a hybrid car battery can cost you a
lot more than it would on a regular car or truck.

Replacing the oxygen sensors in your hybrid car can also cost a lot, but the lost fuel efficiency from not replacing it can be
equally damaging to your wallet. Oxygen sensors track how much unburned oxygen there is in the vehicle’s exhaust, an issue that can have a significant impact on the gas mileage that you get.

Catalytic converter replacements are also common repair issues in hybrid vehicles, not to mention among the costliest to fix. Some hybrid car owners may have to fork over as much as $2000 (about 800k in naira) to have their catalytic converters replaced.

Leaks in the hybrid’s evaporative emissions system or all-out failure of the system also
rank among the most frequent repair issues.

In conclusion the hybrid is a recent technology that has not been perfected. It is however a very important innovation that should be embraced. Go get one if you can afford it!

http://www.everydaycarz.com.ng/2016/10/hybrid-cars.html?m=1

Thank u very much for the information.

You welcome @naphtii