With all the new choices emerging in the field of green hybrid electric vehicles these days, it pays to you know your way around them. Since the technology isn't going to go anywhere—in fact, it looks like it's about to advance more quickly than ever—everyone should learn what makes a hybrid vehicle different than a regular car. The most important “new” part of a green hybrid vehicle is the battery.
Regular cars use batteries, of course, but it's a completely different device than the battery in a green hybrid electric vehicle. Unlike a regular car battery, a green vehicle battery is rechargeable, and can power the vehicle by itself for a certain amount of time. No matter how good the battery is in your gas-powered vehicle, if you run out of gas, you won't move an inch. A green hybrid vehicle battery is designed to be able to sustain power for so many minutes or miles.
The battery in the most popular green hybrid vehicle on the road today, the Toyota Prius, as well as other cars, is a nickel metal hydride battery often referred to as a NiMH battery. It's located in different places depending on the model. Just like a regular car battery, it's made up of several cells—this one has 168 (though the first generation Prius contained batteries with 228 cells each, so they've obviously already made strides with streamlining the batteries). It creates 201.6 volts of power, and weight about 53 kg. Each cell is about the size and shape of a D-battery. Picture how much room 128 D batteries would take up in a small green hybrid vehicle, and the need for streamlining becomes apparent.
The Ford Escape battery, for instance, has 250 cells, the Highlander Hybrid has 240. The Honda Insight only has 120 cells, but you can only get 144 volts of power, and has a more limited use time than other larger batteries in other green hybrid electric vehicles.
New technology in green hybrid electric vehicle batteries will allow the batteries to be smaller and lighter while offering maximum efficiency. The lithium-ion battery (Li-ion) holds about twice the energy as a nickel metal hydride battery, pound for pound. The change in battery technology is impressive when you look at the beginnings of electric hybrid vehicles. Where the lead-acid battery used in General Motors' 1997 green hybrid electric vehicle weight about 1200 pounds and was 8 feet long, the battery going into their new green hybrid Volt is lithium-ion, contains the same power as the old battery, but measures in at 5 feet and 400 pounds.
Because the amount of power needed to move a green hybrid vehicle increases with its weight, lighter batteries can only improve the fuel efficiency of these cars. They do so in two ways—not just because they use lighter weight batteries, but batteries that use less space, allowing green hybrid electric vehicles to be built smaller, which also decreases the vehicle's weight.
No items matching your keywords were found.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2008-12-08 18:59:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 2009 The Cadillac Escalade line of vehicles has recently released its newest incarnation, the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 2009. This is a green hybrid electric vehicle that is based on Escalade's proprietary two mode hybrid system. The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid SUV is the first hybrid entering into the full size luxury SUV...... -
Green Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles are being converted by their owners into vehicles that run purely on electricity. People who drive hybrid vehicles that are easy on gas to begin with are becoming increasingly interested in the idea of converting their vehicles from completely gasoline powered to completely electricity based like many of...... -
Coca Cola Going Green (Their Trucks, Not the Soda) Coca Cola Enterprises made an announcement that their fleet of delivery trucks will be bolstered by the larges number of hybrid delivery trucks by any one manufacturer. The hybrid fleet will be bolstered by 185 vehicles, raising the total to 327 hybrid trucks. This is part of Coca Cola Enterprise's...... -
Welcome to Green Hybrid Electric Vehicle Green Hybrid Electric Vehicle will be website dedicate to the hybrid electric vehicles or HEV. With the price of oil and the toil on our environment nothing is more important within the personal and commercial transportation industry than the hybrid movement. This website will have resources for hybrid vehicles of...... -
Your Used Laptop Batteries in Future Cars Due to increased awareness about global warming and the mysterious rising of oil prices, there has been an increased demand for green hybrid electric vehicles. A green hybrid electric vehicle is a vehicle that is a combination of gas and an electric motor, which uses far less than the average......