Hybrid cars

Have been pondering hybrid vehicles, came up with this explanation for them.

A hybrid recycles the energy that is normally 100% lost during braking and reuses it when the engine most benefits from it.

I am warming up to a hybrid quite a lot.

Sprintcyclist wrote:Have been pondering hybrid vehicles, came up with this explanation for them.

A hybrid recycles the energy that is normally 100% lost during braking and reuses it when the engine most benefits from it.

I am warming up to a hybrid quite a lot.

Sorry, I don't follow you.

A hybrid car, like a toyota prius.

They use regenerative power from the brakes, store it in a battery.
Use that power when the car is accelerating especially from a standing start.

Petrol motors are the least efficient when starting from a standing start.
Which is where an electric motor is most efficient. It has 100% torque from 0 rpm

I'll look harder into hybrids when they make a series hybrid.

Crusader wrote:I'll look harder into hybrids when they make a series hybrid.

What is series hybrid?

An electric car with a small and efficient generator that runs at a steady optimum RPM for efficiency and low emissions.   A parallel system has a complicated transmission and is not as efficient.
The generator of a series system only has to put out the AVERAGE power usage instead of PEAK energy usage.  Maybe 30 HP?  The generator can be switched off for EV use or set up to turn on and off at set DC buss voltages.

Crusader wrote:An electric car with a small and efficient generator that runs at a steady optimum RPM for efficiency and low emissions.   A parallel system has a complicated transmission and is not as efficient.
The generator of a series system only has to put out the AVERAGE power usage instead of PEAK energy usage.  Maybe 30 HP?  The generator can be switched off for EV use or set up to turn on and off at set DC buss voltages.

Thanks.

Yes, the toyota hybrid system is VERY complex

Crusader wrote:An electric car with a small and efficient generator that runs at a steady optimum RPM for efficiency and low emissions.   A parallel system has a complicated transmission and is not as efficient.
The generator of a series system only has to put out the AVERAGE power usage instead of PEAK energy usage.  Maybe 30 HP?  The generator can be switched off for EV use or set up to turn on and off at set DC buss voltages.

This.

Steady-speed operation; more of a constant load on the engine - idling can charge the battery pack and that pack will backup a hard acceleration.

I don't know that "regenerative" braking matters much, or if it exists in these things. In battery powered vehicles, sure.

Diesel-electric locomotives have "dynamic" brakes - the circuitry of the traction motors is reversed, they become generators; and the power is...wait for it...sent to a heating grid between the cab and the radiator set. It's blown away as waste heat.

Dynamic braking is done because it's non-friction and infinitely controllable - unlike train air brakes, which - because they were designed about 1900, although modified...they are not. The engineer can apply them progressively; but there is no partial release.

A skilled engineer with good dynamic brakes can almost stop the train without using air.

But, back to hybrids: Steady-engine-speed operation, no throttling up or down (or little) means both fuel economy and emissions are going to benefit. I don't like complexity in consumer products, but Toyota's system has proven itself over 20 years.

Casey Jones wrote:

Crusader wrote:An electric car with a small and efficient generator that runs at a steady optimum RPM for efficiency and low emissions.   A parallel system has a complicated transmission and is not as efficient.
The generator of a series system only has to put out the AVERAGE power usage instead of PEAK energy usage.  Maybe 30 HP?  The generator can be switched off for EV use or set up to turn on and off at set DC buss voltages.

This.

Steady-speed operation; more of a constant load on the engine - idling can charge the battery pack and that pack will backup a hard acceleration.

I don't know that "regenerative" braking matters much, or if it exists in these things.  In battery powered vehicles, sure.

Diesel-electric locomotives have "dynamic" brakes - the circuitry of the traction motors is reversed, they become generators; and the power is...wait for it...sent to a heating grid between the cab and the radiator set.  It's blown away as waste heat.

Dynamic braking is done because it's non-friction and infinitely controllable - unlike train air brakes, which - because they were designed about 1900, although modified...they are not.  The engineer can apply them progressively; but there is no partial release.

A skilled engineer with good dynamic brakes can almost stop the train without using air.

But, back to hybrids:  Steady-engine-speed operation, no throttling up or down (or little) means both fuel economy and emissions are going to benefit.  I don't like complexity in consumer products, but Toyota's system has proven itself over 20 years.

""I don't know that "regenerative" braking matters much, or if it exists in these things. In battery powered vehicles, sure.""

If you live in a hilly place like Auckland NZ it might have an impact

There are 48 volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field, all within about 20 km of the city centre.

An impact in stopping, sure.

Not in recharging the battery. Because the engine, running, does that. And IIRC, those things don't work without the engine running. Maybe new ones do...but wasn't that the breakthrough of one of the GM battery-cars? It would run by battery for short hops, but then start the engine on a longer trip. Priuses didn't do that.

So, I would suggest (don't know for sure) that the electric braking doesn't contribute much to overall efficiency. Only to stopping ability.