This is the type of HEV most people are familiar with. On the plus side, MHEVs deliver a fairly substantial 8-15% reduction in fuel consumption relative to ICEVs.Įxamples: Honda Insight, Honda CR-Z, various GM “eAssist” models, 20įull Hybrid (HEV), a.k.a. The increased power demands the MHEV powertrain places on the battery and motors requires them to be bigger and heavier and the powertrain to be more complicated, which adds to the vehicle’s cost and weight relative to a Micro Hybrid. In this type of vehicle, the electric motor isn’t powerful enough to provide the sole source of motive power, but is used instead to provide supplementary power for brief intervals (no more than a few seconds at a time) to assist the ICE with acceleration, particularly when the vehicle is accelerating from a complete stop.īecause electric motors are much more efficient at providing acceleration and high torque at low speeds than ICEs, electric motors are particularly effective at improving fuel economy when used in this fashion. But unlike a Micro, an MHEV uses electricity to power the wheels and is equipped with a larger and more powerful battery and electric motor. Like the Micro Hybrid, MHEVs offer the engine stop-start feature, utilize regenerative braking and have the ability to recharge the electric powertrain’s battery using power from the ICE. In the field, they reduce fossil fuel consumption by 2 to 5 percent.Įxamples: Acura RLXS port Hybrid, Cadillac XT5, Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu, Honda Pilot, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Volvo XC60. Essentially, a Micro Hybrid is an idling-control vehicle, whose battery is recharged through regenerative braking. Nevertheless, it does improve fuel economy by using a battery-powered motor to shut down the ICE when the vehicle is at a full stop to avoid engine idling and then quickly turns it back on as soon as power from the ICE is needed. In this respect, it more closely resembles a traditional fossil-fuelled auto. The Micro Hybrid is technically not a true hybrid because electric power is never used for to turn the vehicle’s wheels. The Micro Hybrid (no acronym – sorry, folks!) How do they compare? Let’s take a closer look. From the least to the most electrified, these are: Micro Hybrids, Mild Hybrids, Full Hybrids and Plug-in Hybrids. Today, HEVs come in four varieties, classified according to the degree to which they use electrical energy to reduce burning fossil fuels in some way. When a driver hits the brake pedal, the action reverses the electric motor that otherwise converts electrical energy into mechanical energy, and uses the vehicle’s momentum to make electricity to recharge the battery. Second, they employ regenerative braking. First, they utilize electricity in a way that improves fuel efficiency. Despite any differences, all HEVs share at least two common traits. This looser usage of the term has blurred its meaning to some degree, which is why the auto industry increasingly likes to refer to HEVs as “electrified vehicles”. In practice, HEV has come to refer to any vehicle with an internal combustion engine that makes more extensive use of electricity, in some way, than ICE-only engines. We’ll start with a basic definition.Ī hybrid electric vehicle, or HEV, strictly speaking, is an automobile that uses both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine, ICE, to move. So, what we offer here is a kind of a cheat sheet that describes the kinds of hybrids in the hope of providing you with a clear vision of the current hybrid universe. Since Toyota introduced the first mass-produced hybrid car in 1997 – the Prius - the variety of hybrid types has proliferated, and the field is so littered with an attendant profusion of acronyms, jargon and auto industry market-speak that sorting out the features, advantages and disadvantages can be a mind-numbing experience. Are you having a tough time trying to figure out what kind of hybrid vehicle best suits your fleet?
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