HYBRID AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
What are HEVs?
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) combine the internal combustion engine of a conventional vehicle with the battery and electric motor of an electric vehicle, resulting in twice the fuel economy of conventional vehicles. This combination offers the extended range and rapid refueling that consumers expect from a conventional vehicle, with a significant portion of the energy and environmental benefits of an electric vehicle. The practical benefits of HEVs include improved fuel economy and lower emissions compared to conventional vehicles. The inherent flexibility of HEVs will allow them to be used in a wide range of applications, from personal transportation to commercial hauling.
Hybrid power systems were conceived as a way to compensate for the shortfall in battery technology. Because batteries could supply only enough energy for short trips, an onboard generator, powered by an internal combustion engine, could be installed and used for longer trips. In the old days, we thought that by biasing the system toward battery-electric power and operating on wall-plug electricity as much as possible, efficiency and emissions would then be about as optimal as we could hope for until better batteries came along. The natural conclusion of this concept was that, with better batteries, we probably would not need hybrids at all. But after 20 years of study, it seems that hybrids are taking center stage and electric vehicles are being used in niche market applications where fewer miles are traveled per trip or daily.
More efficient cars can make a big difference to society in terms of environmental benefits, and the serious deterioration of urban air has motivated regulators to require cleaner cars. Use of production HEVs will reduce smog-forming pollutants from the current national average. Hybrids will never be true zero-emission vehicles, however, because of their internal combustion engine. But the first hybrids on the market are cutting emissions of global-warming pollutants by a third to a half, and later models may cut emissions by even more.