Thanks to an increasing demand that we cut our dependency on foreign oil and reduce vehicle emissions, hybrid is a word that is a part of the American vocabulary like it never was before. Most of the cars on the road in the US today are gasoline powered, meaning that there is a gasoline engine that turns the transmission and then in turn the wheels, however more and more people are seeing the advantages of more fuel efficient alternatives and looking to the future.
Manufacturers first looked to develop an all electric cars, but the early renditions were impractical, their batteries needed charged very often and they moved pretty slow, with a top speed of 50 mph. The first practical alternative to the gas powered vehicle was the hybrid. They are what they sound like, a hybrid, or a mix, of the electric and the gasoline powered car. It takes the best of both the gasoline powered car and the electric powered car, using both a gasoline engine and an electric motor and also has a rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery pack.
The gasoline engine in a hybrid is much smaller then the one used in a traditional gasoline powered car, and therefor is far more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. This is the real secret to the success of the hybrid, it is able to function much more efficiently, reducing emissions and increasing fuel economy. While you are driving along at regular cruising speed, the car runs on this smaller gasoline engine.
The electric motor in the car acts as both an engine, receiving power from the batteries, and a generator, slowing the car down when needed and using that energy to charge the batteries. When the electric motor comes into play is when you need to accelerate really quickly or when you are going up a hill, then the electric motor steps in to help. This is how the hybrid vehicle is able to run on such a small gasoline engine.
Unfortunately, although Hybrids have improved since the first ones were released in the late `90s, they are probably not the definitive answer to the problems of pollution and over dependency on foreign oil. Hybrids have served as a bridge between the gasoline engine powered vehicles and the pure electric cars and "plug in" hybrids we will see in the next few years. In their current form they don’t offer enough of a reduction in fuel mileage (they get about 50 mpg on averarge) and they are extremely complicated and expensive to manufacture. Although there have been some fully electric cars and a "plug in" hybrid released, nothing that compares to the current hybrids in popularity has come out yet. The release in 2008 of the Tesla Roadster, an all electric car made by Lotus that will go 130mph and from 0 to 60 in under five seconds 0-60mph in about four seconds tells us that the technology is there to produce and practical and usable electric car to the masses.
In 2011 General Motors is scheduled to release the Chevrolet Volt, the first "plug in" hybrid. It is similar to the Toyota Prius style hybrids in that it has a small gasoline engine and an electric motor, but on the Volt, the gasoline engine will never drive the powertrain, it will engage only to charge the batteries, which will happen roughly every 50 miles. For consumers who mostly make small trips, the gasoline engine may very well never engage.
The big jump in technology that is allowing for this change is the move from the nickel-metal hydride battery (think D cell battery, not exactly the same but similar) to the lithion-ion battery (like in your laptop) which will store more energy. Scientists around the world are working on improving the lithium ion battery to allow it to charge quicker and last longer. As this technology develops, manufacturers will scoop it up, meaning that the next five to ten years could see a lot of change in the automotive industry, the likes of Detroit has never seen.
