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The Many Forms Of A Hybrid
By grqb, Section Commentary Posted on Sun Apr 24, 2005 at 05:37:07 PM PST
The NY Times has an article about how the Toyota Prius has been modified into a plug-in hybrid. Prius cars sold in Europe have the ability to run solely in battery mode, but this feature isn't available in the Prius cars sold in North America. In additon, not all hybrids are battery/ICE, German engineers have made a hybrid fuel-cell/flywheel bus and there was also a report of a hybrid battery/compressed air car. Also, out of the standard battery/ICE hybrid cars, there are different classes of hybrids which reflect the amount of battery power that is being supplied to the engine. Even with the increased fuel efficiency and high gasoline prices, hybrid cars are still more expensive over their lifetime than a regular car of the same size. A more recent development is hybrid trains such as those made by RailPower. These trains are diesel/battery hybrids. There is actually political will to limit emissions of trains, and so hybrid trains are thought to be the next major transportation revolution.

The Many Forms Of A Hybrid | 4 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

Hybrids in the past (5.00 / 2) (#2)
by apsmith on Sat Apr 23, 2005 at 04:19:46 AM PST

(Note, having recently purchased a Prius, which I'm very happy with, I may be a little biased :))

One thing that's intrigued me is that back when steam ships were first being developed, the steam wasn't terribly reliable - I guess boilers often had problems, wouldn't last an entire journey, etc. Or wind was free, diesel fuel expensive, so why not save money by using sails too? So many early steamships were actually "hybrids" - they had sails too! See for example this history.

This history suggests that the complication of current hybrids will soon be replaced by the simplicity of the battery/electric system; the only thing holding that back is perhaps a factor of 3 or so in battery mass/energy storage performance; a bit of R&D may be all we need.

Join us at the National Space Society and help open space to everyone!

plug-in hybrid cars by grqb, 04/25/2005 02:34:46 AM PST (5.00 / 2)

Right by apsmith, 04/26/2005 09:14:41 AM PST (5.00 / 2)

The Many Forms Of A Hybrid | 4 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

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