What I learnt from charging my Prius - Page 17

 



Not quite that simple; the traction battery is initially charged from an
outside source of electricity.
 

But it also uses a gasoline engine to charge the battery when in motion
after the battery is depleted.

--
Member National Rifle Association
Member American Civil Liberties Union
Member Human Rights Campaign

 



well, note that I said "YOU" put in gasoline.

The car is delivered from the delivering dealer all full up with energy.  
To replace that energy, the owner--any owner, at any time down the
road--fills it with gasoline.  That is the ONLY source of energy that
the car takes in after it leaves the factory.




Yep--and then the battery runs the electric motors that drive the
wheels.  Unlike the Prius, the Volt has zero mechanical connection
between the gasoline engine and the wheels.

The Volt is an electric car, or at best a dual-fuel car.

 



It is not a true dual-fuel car; a dual-fuel car means that you can switch
from one fuel to the other, with neither having any connection or influence
on the other.  The gasoline fuel is used only to create electricity to
charge the batteries that power the wheels.

Therefore, this discussion boils down what is the definition of a "hybrid
vehicle".  You say the Volt is not a hybrid because the gasoline engine
does not directly power the wheels.  The other viewpoint is that it is a
hybrid vehicle because the gasoline engine charges the batteries that power
the wheels.

Unless you all can agree on the definition of terms, you'll never come to
an agreement at all.

-- Michelle

--
Member National Rifle Association
Member American Civil Liberties Union
Member Human Rights Campaign

 



Trains and submarines aren't hybrid vehicles; they call them
diesel-electrics.

 




All of the diesel train engines I've seen dissipate the energy captured
during braking in the form of heat because they have no way to store the
energy to be used later for propulsion.  Perhaps there are some that pull
battery cars and I'm not aware of them.  I don't know about subs, but a
diesel-electric train isn't equivalent to what we have come to know as the
hybrid automobile.