Although they emit no exhaust fumes whatsoever and are thus very useful in certain situations (ie use in enclosed spaces), purely electric vehicles combined with an electric motor, require a great amount of battery (or rather electric energy) capacity, and thus a huge amount of batteries. At present, lithium ion batteries^W are mostly used (sulpheric acid-lead batteries can be used too, but are generally not used anymore due to their low power/weight ratio). Lithium-ion batteries have a major environmental impact (the production of these batteries atleast, not their use).^{[verification needed]}

From Wikipedia:Hybrid vehicle

A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids.

Hybrid powertrains are designed to switch from one power source to another to maximize both fuel efficiency and energy efficiency. In hybrid electric vehicles, for instance, the electric motor is more efficient at producing torque, or turning power, while the combustion engine is better for maintaining high speed. Improved efficiency, lower emissions, and reduced running costs relative to non-hybrid vehicles are three primary benefits of hybridization.

Downsides of the electric vehicles

Other battery types can also be used (some battery types lowers this impact greatly), but all generally still have a negative environmental effect, and weighten down the vehicle and reduce range (compared to fuel, batteries -regardless of the type- have very low power/weight ratio's.^[1]

Advantages

Besides the main advantage of the descreased weight/increased range, and the advantage of eliminating a lot of battery capacity (which is useful as the production of the batteries are environmentally unfriendly), there are additional advantages:

• Unlike Stirling-only vehicles, Stirling-electric hybrid vehicles can be immediatelly driven after starting. Stirling engines require a "warm-up time", yet due to the capacitor, the vehicle can use the energy still present in the capacitor to immediatelly drive off. The capacitor is then continuously recharged underway. However, due to the inability of the Stirling engine to be stopped/started quickly, the capacitor can not be charged fully (as it would need to be stopped well before the capacitor is fully charged, to allow optimal energy conversion efficiency). This in turn would require a large capacitor, which again adds weight to the vehicle, reducing the efficiency of the system as a whole.
• Stirling (and Diesel) engines extract more energy and can use other environmentally friendly fuels (ie plant oils) than IC (gasoline) engines.
• It also still function as a hybrid (allowing to switch to the electric motor within densely populated areas). Electric motors are more efficient here than a heat engine since the heat engine (ie microturbine, IC engine or Stirling engine) would need to operate on a speed/load that is not optimal for it
• In the specific case of parallell hybrid electric vehicles fitted with a Diesel engine (not a gasoline engine as the latter are more efficient on operating on almost any speed/load ratio):
  • when used on his own (not hybrid setup), the Diesel engine gets into trouble beyond a certain speed/load^[2] (it works fine for low speeds/loads though) as it can then not oxygenate its fuel optimally. This results in a lesser energy conversion and thus power loss. The electricity generator (dynamo or alternator) too works more efficient^[3] at a specific speed and load. As with series hybrids it's possible to keep the speed/load of both the diesel engine and the electricity generator at a constant rate, near their optimal speed/load range, the efficiency is kept very high during the entire trajectory the vehicle needs to cover.

First Touch of a new Generation

In the 21th century the industry developed more and more vehicle which is able to use green Energy form the socket. The car industry knows that this step is important, because when they miss this step other companies or manufactures came and do this. Furthermore green energy is the further of our world. If you looked at the big company like BMW for example, you can see that they create tow new cars for the customers. In the year 2014 they present the i8 and the i3. This two cars have the best and the highest technology in there.

i8

The BMW i8, first introduced as the BMW Concept Vision Efficient Dynamics, is a plug-in hybrid sports car developed by BMW. The 2015 model year BMW i8 has a 7.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that delivers an all-electric range of 37 km under the New European Driving Cycle. Under the United States Environmental Protection Agency cycle, the range in EV mode is 24 km with a small amount of gasoline consumption.

i3

The BMW i3, previously Mega City Vehicle, is a five-door urban electric car developed by the German manufacturer BMW. The i3 is part of BMW's "Project i" and was launched as a new brand, BMW i. The i3 is BMW's first zero emissions mass-produced vehicle due to its electric power train, and BMW is the first company to launch a volume production vehicle on the market featuring carbon-fiber reinforced plastic to improve the vehicle's energy consumption.

Plug-in hybrids

Plug-in hybrids^W are series or parallell hybrids equipped with a power plug. They have the option of recharging the batteries from the electricity grid.

Criticisms

References

External links

• Wikipedia: Petroleum electric hybrid vehicles
• BMW Electric Cars

See also

• Electric Vehicle Charging