General Disclaimer:   (HV) (DC) injury or death hazard,   use at your own risk,   may void warranty.

Hybrid

From My wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Current W:Hybrid vehicles (HEV) such as the Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, and W:other hybrid vehicles are unfortunately not W:Battery electric vehicles (BEV), as they can not use W:electricity as an external fuel source. Rather they are gas cars with some electric car tricks, but not the most important ability of not using gasoline as W:fuel. So such vehicles may prove to become the missing links in the History of transportation. The efficiency advantage of W:electric motors and W:batteries are diminished with the requirement of burning W:combustables with an onboard W:heat engine. Better it would be, to more fully utilize the W:waste heat from traditional local power W:cogeneration plants. With an eye towards W:wind, W:solar, and other W:sustainable resources which will make BEVs cleaner as they age. Rather than transitioning from gasoline current hybrids are merely a way to reduce (slightly) consumption of finite W:fossil fuels. It's the versatility of using traditional combustion and an array of electric fuel sources which makes Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) such an attractive solution which could be easily achieved today with off the shelf technologies. As the president said in his 2005 State of the Union address "America is addicted to oil", BEVs and PHEVs are critical to solutions capable of more than doubling transportation efficiency and eliminating vehicle CO2 emissions for most trips. Since currently no production PHEVs exist, Hybrid Conversions are modified production vehicles with larger batteries and chargers.

Hybrids can be classified as Series Hybrids like diesel locomotives, very heavy machinery, and EV's with pushers or on board generators; Parallel Hybrids such as the Honda's IMA; and Series-Parallel Hybrids like Toyota's HSD, Ford's Ford Hybrid System W:Ford Escape Hybrid, and General Motors and DaimlerChrysler's AHS2.

Current Production Hybrids include
Year Make and Model EMotor PHEV Versions
2000 Honda Insight 5kW? Insight PHEV ideas
2002 Honda Civic Hybrid 7.5kW? none yet
2005 Honda Accord Hybrid 7.5kW? none yet
2000 Toyota Prius NHW11 35kW (Classic Prius)none yet
2004 Toyota Prius NHW20 50kW Prius PHEV
2006 Toyota Camry Hybrid 105kW none yet
2005 Toyota Highlander Hybrid 123kW none yet
2005 Lexus RX 400h 173kW none yet
2005 Ford Escape Hybrid 70kW Escape PHEV Ford is talking about it!
2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid 70kW none yet
2006 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid     <5kW? maybe never, it's basically an engine start-stop device
2006 Lexus GS 450h 281kW It's got the electric motor for it!
2006 Saturn Vue Hybrid 5kW To be upgraded by GM to 'dual-mode' hybrid for 2008, with plug-in version eventually available from GM
2007 Nissan Altima Hybrid 105kW Getting quotes for a PHEV conversion (April '07)
2010? SEVA:Chevy Volt 120 kW This new BEV/Hybrid from GM will be a Series Hybrid, here's hoping it makes it into production.

Prototype Hybrids:

  •  ? GM commuter buses [15]

Other Links

Oregon State University Pioneer Of Motor Testing, Hybrid Vehicles, Wave Energy Dies] - Alan K. Wallace

Emergency Response Safety

Prius 50kmph frontal impact.jpg
Toyota prius 2004.jpg

News

The CalCars_Maillist: is a great resource for current news regarding PHEVs, visit the Official CalCars-News Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news.

See also:

http://www.komotv.com/news/images/hybrid_sealion_011106.jpg