3 Main Types #
- Hybrid
- Mild Hybrid
- Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV)
Hybrid - HEV #
What? #
A Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is a type of car that has a battery and electric motors in addition to a petrol powered engine.
How? #
A big battery is placed in the car that is charged up with the petrol motor, and typically allows the car to go for 20 to 100 kilometers with the battery power. The car cannot use electric power at highway speeds. All someone does is fill their car with fuel like normal, and the result is a more fuel efficient vehicle off the highway. The most noticeable time a hybrid car stands out is idling. No vibrations or noise when you are stopped at a red light or in a Drive-thru.
Mild Hybrid #
mild hybrid is basically the same as a normal car it’s that it has the battery that’s the same size as a normal car every normal petrol car even has a small battery to assist with things like a powering the lights when the cars turned off or powering the engine start function. typically the way these batteries are charged is when the car is running it uses the gasoline to generate a little bit of the power and just keep that battery charged. in a mild hybrid the only difference is that basically it will just charge up the battery in addition to using some of the petrol from the motor it can additionally charge using some of the braking power of the car the rotational energy from the wheels when the car comes to a stop it will use that to charge the battery. One of the worst and most misleading parts of our mild hybrid is that in reality mild hybrid cannot actually move your car with battery power. It just powers your AC and lights at a red light instead of using petrol. A big giveaway for a mild hybrid car is that they come with an “auto start/stop” feature for the engine. Mild hybrids are NOT the same as hybrids.
Plug in Hybrid - PHEV #
In addition to the Petrol cap on one side of the car, on the other side there will be a charging port. Typically the range of these is much larger than a normal hybrid, able to go 100-300 km on battery power alone. These are usually in family SUVs or sedans, and rarely present in any other category of passenger vehicle. One of the best parts of a PHEV over a standard hybrid car is that a PHEV car can sustain highway speeds on electric power due to it’s comparatively bigger battery than any standard HEV. PHEVs are also cheaper to run because they can be charged with a household electrical outlet instead of needing to draw power from expensive gasoline.