The Toyota Prius, first introduced in Japan in 1997, was the world's first mass-produced gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle.īut SUVs outsell small cars across the market, including among hybrids. Conventional hybrids and mild hybrids are just another way to make a more efficient petrol or diesel burner.Toyota unveiled another version of the Prius at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2000. Hybrids of all types will become a broader part of the automotive landscape as we transition to seemingly inevitable fully electric vehicles, most likely powered by batteries rather than hydrogen fuel cells due to the relative ease of delivery-infrastructure rollout, but plug-in hybrids are the only ones that point towards the future.
With the Defender’s automatic engine stop-start function, the motor/generator is already engaged with the drivetrain at this point, so it’s a seamless interaction to also help get the car rolling. The motor/generator of the Defender mild hybrid still feeds some mechanical energy back into the drivetrain, but only a very quick assistance just to help the initial transition from standing still to moving.
With the Defender, that’s a significant role, as its electrical system not only has to cope with the usual high electrical demands of a modern 4x4 that has electrical operation for near everything, but it also has to power the engine’s electric supercharger (which supplements its turbocharger) and power the electrically assisted steering. MORE Opinion: EV take-up will be fraught with problems All hybrids then combine the motor/generator with an internal-combustion (IC) engine – again, obviously – but vary in the significance of the roles the motor/generator and IC engine play in the vehicle’s operation. In an EV (or a mobility scooter for that matter) a motor/generator is all you have to power the vehicle.
Operating as a motor, it uses electrical energy stored in the battery to produce mechanical energy to propel the vehicle while as a generator, it can harness the mechanical energy of the vehicle’s momentum to produce electricity, which is then stored back in the battery. So just what is an electric motor/generator? Put simply, it’s something that can convert electrical energy to mechanical energy (that’s the motor ‘part’) or alternately, convert mechanical energy to electrical energy (that’s the generator ‘part’). Quick quiz: What do electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids, mild hybrids and even some mobility scooters have in common? Some sort of electric motor, you suggest? Well, yes, you’re half right, but the correct answer is an electric motor/generator unit.
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