The Hybrid Designed Vehicles Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

This paper gives an overview of the hybrid designed vehicles that have gained popularity in the US, Europe and Japan due to the environmental concern of conventional vehicles as well as the need for cheaper fuel sourced designs. A brief introduction will be given about the need for hybrid vehicles then the type and workings of a hybrid design will be discussed. Then a discussion of the benefits versus drawbacks will be given providing a feasibility of this type of production and its future in the market. Finally a conclusion will be given to sum-up the paper.

The fuel economy and environment issues have been widely debated worldwide. From these two concepts, cars manufacture invented hybrid vehicles to help save the earth’s environment. Another problem with fuels is the shortage and soaring price of oil. Hybrid cars are vehicles that run on, not only gasoline but a rechargeable battery. These batteries help to reduce fuel emissions because the hybrid engine takes energy from that battery when it is accelerating or braking. Also, hybrid gasoline engines can shut off when the car is fully stopped and run off the electricity gained from the battery so hybrid cars offer better fuel economy and fewer emissions.

Hybrid vehicle

Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a not new concept for cars. In fact, the engineers have designed many of electric cars and HEVs before but they were unable to solve the problems of weak batteries and lack of control. Moreover, the cheap price of petrol put the electric and hybrid cars into the background until recent years. Nowadays, decreasing of oil resources and rising of environment concerns have pushed them to think again about it, and thus hybrid cars are now being manufactured.

The International Engineering Consortium, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the California Air Resources Board all agree that “a hybrid vehicle is a vehicle with two or more energy storage systems, both of which must provide propulsion power.” (OEERE, 2009)

A hybrid vehicle, as its name implies, is any vehicle that uses two or more sources of power to help run the car. Currently, the hybrid versions of these vehicles run on two primary sources which are electricity (from batteries) and mechanical power (combustion engine). This means that these vehicles can charge themselves and can also work on gas consuming lesser amount of energy and thus giving off very low emissions of toxic fumes. With a mileage of more than 30 miles per gallon, its consumption exceeds the performance that of a gasoline powered car. And the best thing about them is that they don’t need to be plugged in for recharging as charging is done through the kinetic energy reclamation when brakes are applied. (OEERE, 2009)

Hybrid vehicle type

As mentioned above, hybrid designs of these vehicles make them very viable for sustainable consumption of energy. However, this consumption is dependent on the actual design on the hybrid car which comes in ether a ‘parallel’ or a ‘series’ design. “A parallel hybrid design has two independent power plants – an electrical motor and an internal combustion engine both of which can act on the transmission at the same time” (Hybrid Car Chat, 2009). The important thing from the perspective of fuel consumption is that the power from both these sources combine to drive the car, however, it can be manually adjusted to drive only on one source rather than both at a time. (Hybrid Car Chat, 2009)

The hybrid ‘series’ design on the other hand uses the internal combustion engine to provide power to a generator which then charges the car’s batteries and drives the car. “The gasoline engine does not directly drive the transmission or wheels in a hybrid ‘series’ design and the transmission may have only a single gear” (Hybrid Car Chat, 2009). In certain designs, each wheel has its own electric drive motor, and some hybrid designs may eliminate the transmission altogether. The conversion from one power source to another inside the car is seamless and even the most experienced of drivers find it difficult to identify which source of power is active at a certain time. A challenge that most hybrid car drivers face due to this is that they cannot exactly follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for time of oil changes and maintenance intervals since the recommendations for both power sources are different. To help drivers to maximize the efficiency of the car, hybrid design manufacturers have designed special gauges which make the drivers aware about the vehicle’s emissions. (Hybrid Car Chat, 2009)

The advantages of HEVs

Hybrid cars, as mentioned before, have two motors, electric and gas motor. These give the HEV’s more benefits; specifically, electric motor will not use any energy while the car is inactive, and will spend less energy at low speeds than normal cars. Furthermore, gas motor provides more power at high speeds especially for acceleration. In other words, while the car moves and stops, the electric motor will turns on and is more convenient for environment. Another benefit for having gas motor is to recharge the batteries during its working. (Leesa-nguansuk, 2009)

Hybrid cars do not need any extra maintenance than normal cars. Also, because of regenerative braking, the brake pads will last longer than that in the normal cars; the batteries life cycle is now around eight to ten years so it will not need replacement as cars manufacturers had to before. However, with all these brilliant technologies going into building a single car has raised the prices. Moreover, the cost of the batteries is also high thus replacement will cost even more money. (Reynolds & Kandlikar, 2007)

Benefits and drawbacks of hybridization

Hybridization provides two major benefits: decreased exhaust emissions and increased fuel economy. These benefits are the results of downsizing the engine, less transient operation of the engine, and the application of regenerative braking that reduces average power demand. While in conventional vehicles the engine alone had to meet the instantaneous power requirement to propel the vehicle, in HEVs a smaller engine is sufficient with added power from the electric motor to provide the same performance. The electric motor adds the extra power using the electrical energy stored in the batteries. At the same time, the added power from the electric motor makes it possible for the engine to operate in a less transient manner. This results in fuel economy improvement as well as lower exhaust emissions. Probably the most beneficial feature of hybrid and electric vehicles in city driving is regenerative braking. During regenerative braking the controller switches the electric motor to operate in generator mode providing the braking torque on the wheels and generating electricity at the same time. The generated electricity is stored in the batteries and can be used for the next acceleration. (Reynolds & Kandlikar, 2007)

These benefits do not come for free in hybrids, though. The integrated ICE and electric motor drive system makes a heavier and more complicated power-train than that of a conventional vehicle. It costs more money, involves more components with possible failure and increases control complexity resulting in increased price (Popoff, 2009). At the present oil prices the savings on fuel do not compensate for the additional purchasing and maintenance cost involved with hybrid vehicles. This means that fuel prices will have to go much higher before consumers will decide to pay the higher price for hybrids. (Popoff, 2009)

HEVs market

According to Chanaron & Teske (2007), there are different changeable factors that will be driving the market of HEVs. Chanaron & Teske (2007) divides it to three categories:

1. The market demand, which includes how the consumers know and understand HEVs, cost and maintenance.
2. The market supply, including the variety of hybrid cars model afforded, life cycle cost, fuel efficiency and emissions.
3. Other economic factors; in fact, these factors influence the market in general. For instance, the increasing in fuel price, environmental concerns and taxes.

Environmental concerns

According to Department of Environmental Protection (2009), there is a discussion on global warming due to CO₂ emissions. Environmental concerns help and guide the consumers to purchase buying decision. In addition, driving a “green car” allows people to adopt a responsible and proactive role in society (DEP, 2009).

Burning the fuel in the internal combustion process is a direct source of CO₂ emissions and other gases. Nowadays, scientists try to reduce harmful emissions such as CO₂ HC and NOX. HEVs can help to reduce these emissions. Widespread use of HEVs would reduce the emissions of toxic and hazardous gases to the environment that have the ability to destroy the ozone layer by approximately 90%. Not only this, HEVs also will cut the emissions of greenhouse gases by up to one-half from internal combustion type gasoline vehicles. (DEP, 2009)

“HEVs have already met the California Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) standards that take effect in 2004 without sacrificing performance” (DEP, 2009). On a more specific level, the HEV cars reduces toxic gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons emissions while also reducing the emissions of other gases like carbon dioxide that makeup the greenhouse gases. (DEP, 2009)

Hybrid development

Although buying and maintenance still costs more for a hybrid than for a conventional vehicle, the fact that every major car manufacturer works on hybrid designs suggests that there is going to be interest on the market for these vehicles in the close future. R&D departments of different auto manufacturers have different goals, market targets, and different HEV configuration designs. In 1998, Honda and Toyota started the mass production of the Insight and Prius, respectively. Today, September 2004, they are still the only two manufacturers that produce hybrid vehicles commercially available on the market. This part of the chapter attempts to show some of the major manufacturers’ design efforts and to show the trends in hybrid vehicle development. (Mitani, 2009)

The future of HEVS

Today the concept of a hybrid vehicle is gaining vast popularity with a new type called ‘Plug-in’ hybrids taking over. These ‘full’ hybrid vehicles such the ones introduced by Toyota with their Prius model or Ford as their Escape model have the ability to start and accelerate to low speeds without even using the gasoline powered engine. However, the large battery in the car charged only from the built-in combustion engine and through kinetic energy recovered from applying brakes. A slight modification is available in the ‘plug-in’ hybrid models that have the ability to charge themselves from electric sockets as well so that the combustions engine that gives off emissions isn’t used, rather only the grid electricity is used. This is a much safer and a much cheaper option (Anonymous, 2009). The ‘Plug-in’ hybrid model are more effective than initial hybrid models and also better than just simple electric vehicles since even though the car is run on batteries, a backup plan in the form of internal combustion and regenerative braking to charge the battery and drive the vehicle is available. (NRDC, 2007)

Conclusion

Just like the concept of electric cars was ‘killed’, many people are there to de-motivate research and development in the hybrid cars as well for selfish reasons. Hybrid cars are an extremely viable concept and good for the sustainability and protection of the environment. Its numerous advantages not only in the environment but also in cheaper use of resources make it a way-forward for the people especially in these troubled economically hit times. However, there are a few challenges about hybrid cars that must be addressed first before a massive campaign to launch hybrids on an international scale can begin. This includes putting efficiency in the capacity and life of the batteries. If this major drawback is handled soon, Hybrid vehicles are start their inevitable journey in our routine lives.

References

Anonymous. (2009). A glimpse of the future? Chattanooga Times Free Press. Chattanooga, Tenn.

Chanaron, J.J. and Teske, J. (2007). Hybrid Vehicles: a Temporary Step. International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management 7, p268-288

DEP (2009). Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Department of Environmental Protection. Web.

Hybrid Car Chat (2009). How Does A Hybrid Vehicle Work? Web.

Leesa-nguansuk, S. (2009). Cleaner, greener, cheaper. The Bangkok Post. Bangkok

Mitani, S. (2009). Get Ready for the Hybrid Wars. Road & Track. New York.

NRDC (2007). The Next Generation of Hybrid Cars: Plug-in Hybrids Can Help Reduce Global Warming and Slash Oil Dependency. Natural Resources Defense Council. Web.

OEERE (2009). Technology Snapshot. Office of Energy Efficiency and renewable Energy. Web.

Popoff, M. (2009). Hybrid cars are a costly mistake. Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Man.: pg. A.10

Reynolds, C. and Kandlikar, M. (2007). How hybrid-electric vehicles are different from conventional vehicles: the effect of weight and power on fuel consumption. Environmental Research Letters. IOP Publishing. Assignment 4 Page.