Welcome to Hybrid Cars Compared!
Hybrid cars combine two or more power sources to move the vehicle, which are usually petrol and electricity powering an internal combustion engine and electric motors respectively.
The hybrid vehicle typically achieves greater fuel economy and lower emissions than conventional internal combustion engine cars. These savings are primarily achieved by:
1. the hybrid vehicle relying on both the gasoline and the electric motors for peak power needs resulting in a smaller gasoline engine sized more for average usage rather than peak power usage.
2. hybrid cars having significant battery storage capacities to store and reuse recaptured energy, especially in stop and go traffic.
3. the hybrid vehicle recapturing significant amounts of energy normally wasted during braking etc. (regenerative braking) This mechanism reduces the hybrid vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into another useful form of energy, dependent upon the power rating of the motor/generator;
4. hybrid cars shutting down their gasoline engines during traffic stops or while coasting or other idle periods;
Hybrid Cars Compared outlines the main attributes of each hybrid car to assist in choosing a vehicle.
Please also visit our sister site, Most Economical Cars, where you can find information on the most fuel efficient internal combustion engine cars for each class of vehicle.
We have introduced a new site for electric cars. Please visit Electric Cars Compared, to find information on the best all electric powered cars currently available, such as the Tesla Roadster. These cars run on electricity alone.
Hybrid Car Articles
Hybrid car manufacturers becoming more environmentally friendlyHybrid car manufacturers must do more than produce environmentally friendly cars. They must also be green themselves in all their business practices. The first hybrid to hit the market was the Prius and Toyota soon came under a lot of criticism about how bad for the environment the building and transporting of their hybrid car was. Many people believed it was better for the environment to keep an old car than buy a new Toyota hybrid. Toyota soon took this criticism on board and have progressively made building the world's first hybrid more and more environmentally friendly. More...
Ford Escape Hybrid SUV
The Ford Escape Hybrid SUV was first released in 2005 and remained largely unchanged until the 2008 model which saw lots of cosmetic surgery. In 2009 further improvements were made, this time to the engine and mechanics and the latest version of this hybrid SUV is definitely the best yet.
The hybrid Escape has a 2.5 liter four cylinder gasoline engine with variable valve timing and two electric motors, teamed with a continuously variable transmission. This gives the Ford hybrid 177 horsepower which is a handy 22 horsepower up on the 08 Escape hybrid. The car has an all-electric mode to 40mph, after which the gas engine kicks in to assist. Having said that if you put your foot down and demand power from the vehicle the gas engine will immediately begin to work. The previous model of the hybrid Escape could only manage to run on electric motors up to 30mph so this is another good improvement. More on the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV...
Why hybrid SUV's work so well as a type of car
Hybrid SUV's are going to get a lot more numerous and a lot more popular. This is because the combination of SUV with petrol-electric hybrid engines is a mix that works really well.
Not all cars benefit equally from the incorporation of hybrid technology. Small cars already have small fuel efficient engines and so the potential fuel savings by adding electric engines to them is small compared to large engines. SUV's on the other hand are large, heavy vehicles that require big powerful engines. Its these type of engines that use a lot of fuel More on hybrid SUV's...