How are Hybrid Cars Powered?

The Hybrid Car's Battery Technology
The usual battery technology in hybrid vehicles is nickel metal hydride which use sintered electrode or pasted foam electrode. Sintered electrode technology uses sintered Inco Type 255™ powder in the cylindrical batteries that power Honda's Civic and Accord HEVs and the Ford Escape HEV. Another type, called pasted foam electrode technology uses Incofoam™ to make battery modules consisting of flat electrode plates. This is the design in Toyota products like the Prius and the Lexus RX 400h SUV.

There are several manufacturers of hybrid car batteries that make them for major automobile manufacturers. The two largest manufacturers use both sintered technology and the other pasted foam, each using only one of these technologies. Both use nickel, but there is more of it in the sintered - as much as 16 kilograms per battery pack

Not just using nickel-containing rechargeable batteries, there are both a gas engine and an electric motor in hybrid vehicles. The motor draws power from the battery pack that captures, stores and releases electrical energy as the vehicle travels. The HEV battery pack only charges and discharges in a narrow window of the battery's overall capacity, which is unlike conventional batteries, and enables the battery pack to last much longer. Providing power for the electric motor the battery is recharged by recapturing energy that would normally be lost when applying braking or coasting.

Gasoline Power vs. Electric Power
The gasoline powered car is a gas-powered car with a fuel tank, which supplies gasoline to the engine. Electric cars have a set of batteries that provides electricity to an electric motor. The hybrid is a compromise. It attempts to significantly increase the mileage and reduce the emissions of a gas-powered car while overcoming the shortcomings of an electric car.

In order to be useful, a car must meet certain minimum requirements. It should be able to drive at least 300 miles (482 km) between re-fueling, be refueled quickly and easily, and keep up with the other traffic on the road.

A gasoline car gets these results but produces a large amount of pollution and usually gets poor gas mileage. An electric car produces almost no pollution, but can only go 50 to 100 miles (80 to 161 km) between charges, and is very slow and inconvenient to recharge. A gasoline-electric car combines these two in an attempt to get the best of both.



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