Why Hybrid Cars Get Great Mileage

You know that hybrid cars get great mileage. You’ve heard it everywhere, from the streets to the television set. You’ve seen it in action on the roads and in the back country. You kick yourself for buying that supposedly “green” compact instead of the new hybrid version.

But why is it that hybrids get such great gas mileage and are they really as efficient as they seem?

The answer to this question is both simply and complicated.

Hybrid cars are built with a special technology that utilizes an internal-combustion engine (like a regular car) and an electric motor. The motor and the engine are connected by a battery pack that transmits between the two and both are connected to a computer that runs the car.

But the car still burns gas. So how does a hybrid keep from wasting fuel and pump up the mileage?

A regular, fuel-driven vehicle requires gasoline to start, drive, idle and start again. When you are sitting at a stop light, your fuel-driven vehicle wastes gasoline to idle so that you can automatically accelerate when the light turns green. The same waste occurs when you are driving up a hill, traveling 10 miles per hour in rain and snow or sitting in bumper to bumper traffic.

Hybrids, on the other hand, have been called, the “smart car” for these very reasons. A hybrid engine does not begin burning gasoline until you are going more than 15 miles per hour. This means the car automatically eliminates the waste of fuel in slow-speed driving conditions and acceleration, where internal-combustion engines waste the most fuel.

Additionally, most hybrid computers automatically shut off the internal-combustion engine when the car is idling and automatically starts it up again when you press the accelerator. If you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, you can take your foot off the brake and coast instead of wasting gas to move a mere three inches per hour.

But if the engine shuts off, how can you coast?

The electric motor in a hybrid assumes a great deal of stress that would normally be reserved for the internal-combustion engine. The electric motor can handle all of the small tasks, like coasting, braking and idling. The electric motor also kicks in to help the hybrid get up large hills, where regular, fuel-driven vehicles waste a great deal of their gasoline. To betterunderstand about hybrid cars and the great gas mileage, you might to read about how hybrid cars work.