Fishing Frenzy

There are a variety of reasons why you may want a hybrid car. You may like a hybrid car in order to cut your ever increasing petrol bill; in order to lessen your personal effect on the environment or you might only like the kudos of driving a car that is at the forefront of technology. Naturally, it could be for a combination of all three reasons too.

Hybrid cars have been about for around ten years and so the technology is quite well advanced. The thing to bear in mind is that hybrids are not performance cars in the conventional sense of the word. In the perspective of cars, the word 'performance' usually refers to 'high speed', but hybrid cars are performance cars because they save more than eight percent on the fuel bill.

They make this saving by basically using two engines. The one engine is a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) and the other is an electric motor. Both engines deliver their power through the same mechanical means to the wheels. The ICE generates electricity and supplies it to a battery, like any car does, however, a hybrid car can use this battery power to drive the car as well.

The electricity is generated by alternators and the braking system. Regenerative braking supplies a large amount of power to the batteries. In fact, so much so that under normal driving conditions, the batteries do not have to be charged from the national grid.

The 'early' hybrids used the electric motor merely as an 'assist'. In other words, when the petrol engine would usually need to get revved up to produce enough power to overtake or go up hill, the electric motor would jump in to assist it, thus saving fuel, but the petrol engine is effectively running all the time. This a kind of halfway hybrid. The Honda Insight was one of these.

However, a full hybrid will use one or the other or both of the engines, depending on how its computer best interprets the power requirements of the driving conditions. The driver has no decisions to make, engines are turned on and off automatically and seamlessly by the car's on board computer. Examples of this sort of full hybrid are the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid.

Although most individuals think of hybrids as new technology, the first hybrid car was manufactured more than a hundred years ago. Modern hybrids are around ten years old and the technology is improving quickly. However, what really has to happen now for hybrids to create a real effect on the amount of oil that the West consumes is for the prices to come down.

And I mean actually come down a lot. Hybrid cars are far too costly for the average driver. If manufacturers reduced the cost of the cars, more people would purchase one which would stimulate the economy and aid the balance of payments deficit to say nothing of the impact of burning less fossil fuel would have on the environment.