Toyota had sold one million copies of his Prius. In 2007, Toyota Camry Hybrid won with her several major awards in the automotive world, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has granted the Camry Hybrid as 2007 Canadian Car of the Year, as well as better car family of more than $ 30,000 CDN. The Canadian Automobile Association has awarded them the coveted prize: CAA 2007 Pyramid for environmental initiatives. Lexus, the premium brand of Toyota sells hybrid sedans and 4×4, the latter (Lexus RX400h) meeting with some success, despite its price. Without approaching the success of the Prius, Honda sells for several years called a hybrid version of Honda Civic IMA and a specific model, the Insight. Other manufacturers have also sold hybrid models but with marginal market shares (Mazda, General Motors, Renault). In France, the most notable effort was Renault, which produced thousands of hybrid Kangoo only. Oil crisis and ecological constraints forced many automakers have announced major research programs in this area, including General Motors, which is associated in this area with Mercedes and BMW, Ford has acquired the technology from Toyota for first generation and more recently PSA Peugeot Citroën, which has partnered with several major OEMs and a French SME, to produce the first diesel-electric hybrid car as part of a major development program supported by the Innovation Agency Industrial.

This type of engine decreases 10-30% in fuel economy after use (urban driving with the most spectacular gains and the lowest highway driving) and also reduces emissions proportion to fuel consumption . The hybrid is therefore particularly interesting for taxis and it begins to be applied to buses and trucks in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Do drawing its energy in the fuel, at least in the current achievements, a hybrid should not be compared to an electric motor, it is just a heat engine optimizing energy use.
The first such vehicle to be placed on the market in large series is the Toyota Prius in late 1997 in Japan (in a version never sold outside the group), followed by the Honda Insight 2-seater coupe in 1999, was also exported to the United States and some other countries but not in France. The third version of the Prius (model NHW20) has been named European Car of the Year in 2005. In 2008.

• The Full-Hybrid is the most famous formula. The movement of thermal and electric motors are combined because either they are connected to the same tree (a hybrid of “parallel” as the Honda Insight and the prototype Hybrid HDi PSA) is more developed with a planetary gear train (hybrid-series parallel “as the Toyota Prius) which allows for different rotational speeds between the engine and electric motor. Among others, the Toyota Prius, Nissan Altima Hybrid, Lexus RX400h, GS450h, LS600h use variants of this principle.

• The series hybrid electric vehicle is the engine which powers an electric generator which in its turn the electric motor which drives the vehicle so it can turn optimal regime. In addition, there is no mechanical losses in the transmission. Of batteries or super-capacitors can store energy and possibly ride in fully electric. The braking is, of course, regenerative. The Chevrolet Volt (concept car whose marketing is planned from autumn 2010) illustrates this technology.

• We are talking about PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid) when hybrid vehicle, whether serial or parallel, can be recharged from the grid, allowing for short trips daily to use mode all electric. Thus the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, the first users of this system, allow users to run 60 miles a day without using gasoline, recharging the batteries overnight. The engine is restarted when the batteries are exhausted or beyond a certain speed, allowing up to 600 km in total autonomy on volts and amps.

• A particular concept (integral-hybrid) is to use a more conventional traction electric motors mounted on the rear wheels. The concept car Citroën C-Metisse uses this principle. This provides four-wheel drive without complication of mechanical transmission.

The vehicles, hybrids according to the importance of the electrical part and how it is combined with the engine. The nomenclature varies depending on sources and manufacturers, the most used is:

• The Micro Hybrid solution, corresponding to the lowest level of hybridization, is illustrated by Stop & Start system available on the Citroen C2 and C3. It is a reversible electric motor fulfilling the roles of starter and alternator on a conventional car, combined with the automatic shut the engine when the vehicle stops, thereby substantially reducing the consumption of urban route ( and only there).

• The Mild Hybrid are an intermediate level of hybridization. The Urban Hybrid system called PSA (concept car-C5 Airscape) is a stop & start the extended functionality that can also provide regenerative braking (the electric motor operates as a generator and provides additional engine braking torque) and provide an extra power to help occasions, the energy is stored in the meantime in batteries or super capacitors. Comparable technologies exist at BMW, Honda (Honda Insight) or Ford.

The general operating principle is to combine one (or two) electric motor (often reversible generator) with a heat engine to propel a vehicle.
The principle of operation extremely simple:
When the vehicle is stationary, the two engines are stationary;
At start up, the electric motor which provides the setting in motion of the car to a speed of about 25 km / h;
When higher speed is reached or a strong acceleration is required, the engine takes over;
At very high acceleration, both motors are operated simultaneously, allowing a superior acceleration;
During deceleration and braking, kinetic energy is absorbed by the electric motor to recharge the batteries for engine braking and thus relieving the mechanical brakes. Given the possible modes of operation, management is in general assigned to the electronics which also takes into account the state of battery charge, temperature of the engine and that of catalyst, needs heating or cooling. However, the recovery of braking energy is not available on all hybrid vehicles

We’ll probably future buyers of hybrid cars and more thanks to this work, we are probably more critical to decision time. More importantly, this work has the merit of making us realize that all environmental problems will probably not settle simply because people will buy this type of vehicle. The bike, ballast transport, walking and some other good old recipes are always preferred when possible. We sincerely hope that you, the readers of this blog,’ll enjoy reading and you will develop your critical thinking on hybrid cars as ourselves we realize you did.

Following the steps which we delivered in this project, we realized that hybrid cars are a must as the ecological perspective, technological, and economic in a not so distant future. This technology is very young and yet she has already greatly advanced and awareness of current and future generations face the impact of cars on the health of our only planet will boost research and therefore its future.

This project was very interesting for us. While reading the whole blog can sometimes be difficult, we are rather proud of the quality, relevance and accuracy of the information contained therein. For us, this project has really aware of the impact of the use of motor vehicles on the environment. To hear the radio or television and take the time to compare and analyze accurate data, it does not AT ALL the same impact.