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Almost all of us have come across hybrid vehicles now and then. While many of us have owned a hybrid at some point of time, others have seen friends and relative driving cars that are hybrid. This brings us to the question—What are hybrid cars? Any car or vehicle that combines more than a single source of power can be called a hybrid. Most of the hybrids on the road today combine gas and electricity as sources of power to provide propulsion to the vehicle. While gasoline-electric hybrids are the most common kind of hybrid cars, you may also come across some diesel-electric hybrids very soon. Since you will most probably come across a gas-electric hybrid car, or buy the same if you have to, we will tell you how a gasoline-electric hybrid car works.

The basic principle behind the working of a hybrid car lies in the seamless integration of two sources of power—a gas engine and a high powered battery , both of which provide power for running the electric motor that runs the car. Unlike cars that run on electricity, batteries in hybrid cars do not need to be charged externally. This is because batteries used in hybrid cars charge themselves through energy that is generally lost when a vehicle decelerates or slows down. Instead of letting this energy go waste, hybrid car batteries recapture it to charge themselves.  Since hybrids combine battery power along with the power provided by the gas engine, they tend to save on fuel by giving more miles per gallon of fuel as opposed to cars that run only on fuel. While the main principle behind the working of hybrid cars is the combination of the gas engine with an electric battery, the way in which this combination works varies in different kinds of hybrids.

In some hybrid cars, the electric motor is only used to provide assistance to the propulsion created by the gas engine when extra power is required. However, the electric motor cannot work independently. In these cars, the battery can also not get charged and provide power to the electric motor at the same time, and the two functions have to take place separately. These kinds of hybrid cars are generally referred to as mild hybrids and examples are Honda Civic (2004 and 2005) hybrids and Honda Insight. On the other hand, there are other kinds of hybrid cars where the electric motor, run by the battery can work independent of the gas engine once certain conditions are achieved. In most cases, the electric motor takes over from the combustion engine when the vehicle is cruising at low speeds. The gas engine takes over when more power is required to run at higher speeds. In some cases, both the battery powered electric motor as well as the gas engine work together to provide the necessary propulsion to the vehicle, but this generally happens when the vehicle reaches very high speeds. As opposed to mild hybrids, the battery can both get charged and provide power to the motor simultaneously.  Some examples of full hybrids are the Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander and the Honda Civic (2006 and above) hybrids.