EHOW.COM - How Do Hybrid Cars Work?

A hybrid car combines an internal combustion engine with an electric battery, and the vehicles work by starting the car with the battery then switching the power source to the internal combustion engine. Hear about the efficiency of hybrid cars with this free video from automotive industry writer and editor.

How Do Hybrid Cars Work?

By Ron Cogan, eHow Editor

Ron Cogan is the lead editor of GreenCar.com and the Green Car Journal. Ron has over 30 years of experience as a writer in the automotive industry, including 6 years as the feature

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Ron Coogan with greencar.com. Today we're going to talk about how hybrid cars work, like this Nissan Altima hybrid I'm standing in front of. You know, regular cars use an internal combustion engine. It...it usually runs on gasoline, some run on diesel. Those are the two choices. Today we have hybrid electric cars. Those combine standard internal combustion drive along with an electric motor powered by batteries. Hybrid cars are very efficient by nature. Most of them are designed so that when you're first starting out, you're driving on electric power. As the car picks up speed, the internal combustion engine takes over seamlessly, you can even feel it. And you drive along that way. If you need more power as you're passing, or climbing a hill, the electric motor joins in, gives you even more power to do those very efficiently. The advantage of a hybrid car is the very fact that it has those two power sources. Electric motors are, inherently, very efficient. The problem is, you can't drive on electric power for great distances or at great speeds, 'cause it takes a lot of battery power. Batteries are expensive, they're heavy, and you have to put a lot of 'em in a car to be able to work on electricity only. That's being worked on with electric cars, and we'll see that coming in the years ahead. Today, hybrids have an advantage because they have those two power sources. They'll use the appropriate power source when it's needed under specific conditions. And in the end, you get extremely high fuel efficiency, up to forty-five, fifty miles per gallon in some instances. And extremely low emissions, which is important for the air quality in our cities today."