Yahoo Autos What is a hybrid car and how does it work?
The arrival of the Honda Insight and the even more impactful Toyota Prius back in the 1990s ushered in the era of hybrid cars. Now, 25 years later, hybrid powertrains are enjoying a groundswell of interest from car buyers, who see the technology as a stepping stone to a fully battery-electric car.
The combination of an electric motor and gas engine to send power to the car's wheels ignited a revolution in fuel economy. There were just under 10,000 total hybrids sold in 2000, but by 2023, hybrids and fully electric cars combined made up 16.3% of U.S. car sales, with hybrids and plug-in hybrids outselling pure EVs. Hybrids are expected to surpass 20% of total vehicle sales in 2024, and automakers are scrambling to build more of them.
So what, exactly, makes a hybrid car a hybrid? And why are there different kinds of hybrid vehicles?
The simple answer is that a hybrid car features both an internal combustion engine (almost always one that runs on gas) and an electric motor that combine to provide power to the vehicle. In most cases, the electric motor is smaller than what would be found in a fully electric vehicle, and also smaller is the battery pack that feeds electricity to the motor. Similarly, a hybrid car's combustion engine is usually tuned for efficiency, not power, since power from the electric motor and engine are typically combined to move the vehicle.
What is a hybrid car?
Electric cars can be expensive and difficult to produce. Pure battery electric cars may also present issues with range or charging locations for some owners. That's where the hybrid car comes in: By combining the easy refueling of an ICE vehicle with the efficiency-enhancing assist of an electric motor and battery, the hybrid can help drivers get better fuel economy and reduce emissions while allowing a normal driving range.
The Toyota Prius is the most successful hybrid vehicle ever produced. The latest Prius is pictured at the very top of this article. Below are all four prior generations of the Prius sold in America, starting with the 2000 (top left), 2004 (top right), 2010 (bottom left) and 2016 (bottom right).
Hybrid cars are, as you might expect, somewhat more complicated to design and produce than a traditional ICE vehicle, or a pure electric vehicle for that matter. Because hybrid cars use both ICE power and electric power, in some ways they are two cars in one — and must blend both types of car into a single driving experience.
So now we know that hybrid cars are called hybrids because they are a combination of two types of powertrain. But there are also different types of hybrid cars. Technically, there are four types: Mild hybrid, parallel hybrid, series (or range-extender) hybrid, and plug-in hybrid.
Of those four, we'll only touch briefly here on mild hybrids. It's enough to know that these typically have a small electric motor, often placed between the engine and transmission, that provides an incremental assist when accelerating from a stop. An example would be the eTorque mild hybrid system offered on Ram trucks. Mild hybrids offer only a slight gain in fuel economy.
Serial vs. parallel hybrid cars
Hybrids are commonly of two types: serial or parallel hybrid cars. So what do these terms mean?
