I don't know how often I hear people buy into the crap that car companies can't get the mileage improvements the government wants. Can't be done. We'll end up with tricycles disguised as cars. Well, if 400 HP can get 53, then high mileage is possible for all cars, vans and pickups. No excuses.
Damn,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea.
Help me understand hybrid technology - when running on fossil fuel it charges the batteries and then runs on the electricity and constantly switches back and forth? Right?
Ron
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ReplyDeleteThat 400hp is probably by adding the electric motor and the gas motor. That's the way they usually do it with hybrids.
ReplyDeletehttp://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower-debate-hybrids-vs-standard-cars1.htm
Kukkuri,
DeleteMy Camry is 187 hp., mpg rated at 34 and 36 we get 36 to 40 all the time on a tank, most common is 38.
400 hp electric or gas or combined, anyway you dice it it's 400 and that must be a blast to takeoff in. Houston ready for takeoff. Amazing to me is the 53mpg out of 400 horses, thats a good one.
Sorry, about spelling error. Kulkuri, someone put the "k" and "l" close together on my machine.
DeleteRon, OK take notes, test will be essay, 1,000 word answers, spelling counts.
ReplyDeleteHybrids like my Toyota Camry have two sources of drive. An electric motor, and a gasoline engine. A computer program decides when they run or rest.
When you ask for power one or both of these go to work. It is seamless, there is no jerking in or out of gear. To accelerate the gas engine normally does most the work, but you can see on the display the electric motor is helping sometimes, sometimes for long periods, sometimes just for a couple of seconds on and off. But again, you don't feel it, it is totally smooth. During this time the battery monitor may show a decrease in reserve.
Cruise on flat ground, again it can be either be the motor or the engine, but the electric motor will run for longer periods and the gas engine rests, conserving fuel driving the mpg up, and the mointor will show more decrease in battery life.
Coast of Brake, even if you coast or brake for only 1 second, or for 10 minutes - 5 miles down the mountain the engine shuts off, the electric motor now runs backwards and becomes a generator. Thus the term regenerative braking. No fuel is burning, and the batteries are recharging. Now the battery life extended, and the electric motor can continue to assist or drive the car.
At low speeds in heavy traffic, you inch forward a few feet or roll along a block at 5 mph, the electric motor usually does all this, the gas engine may never start.
Stopped at the light, both motor and engine are off, the radio, air, windows all still operate as normal, you don't burn a drop of gas. This is a savings not even reported in the mpg of any car, without rolling no mpg calculation occurs. Old cars and big engine cars eat 1/2 gallon an hour at idle, new cars are about 1/4 gph, hybrids are almost zero. Almost because in cold weather the engine runs at first to warm up, even if it would not otherwise have needed to.
So, to finally answer your question. No, eht fossil fuel is not used to charge the batteries, that is done when the car is coasting or braking and it is done by the electric motor acting as a generator.
I have never had the batteries run down totally. The way life in a car works your going to coast and use the brakes at some time during the drive, the energy is eventually returned to the battery, stored for future use.
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