Hybrid vehicles

DEFINITION: Motorized vehicles that combine electric motors and internal combustion engines so that they can be powered by gasoline, batteries, or a combination of the two.

Because hybrid vehicles use less gasoline than vehicles powered by gasoline only, they produce substantially lower amounts of toxic carbon emissions than do conventional vehicles. While they help conserve fossil-fuel resources, they also reduce air pollution.

The gasoline-powered automobiles of the twentieth century replaced the steam-powered automobiles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As early as 1889, when Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler built the first automobiles, steam had already been used extensively to power locomotives. Among the earliest automobiles was the Stanley Steamer, which was fueled exclusively by steam. In 1900, car manufacturers in the United States sold 1,681 steam vehicles, 1,575 electric cars, and a mere 936 vehicles powered by gasoline. In 1906, twin brothers Francis E. Stanley and Freelan O. Stanley raced one of their steam-powered automobiles to a top speed of 127.7 miles per hour at Daytona Beach, Florida. Stanley Steamers were still being sold as late as 1920.

The development of gasoline-powered internal combustion engines greatly increased the range that automobiles could travel, and increasing numbers of these cars were manufactured as the twentieth century progressed. Gasoline was inexpensive and readily available, and the development of hybrid vehicles was seen as unnecessary and economically infeasible. The fuel shortages of the 1970s, however, awakened the public and automobile companies to the urgent need to produce automobiles that could offer drastically increased fuel economy in such places as the United States, much of Europe, and many Asian countries. Much of the world had become increasingly dependent on automobiles for transportation, especially in countries such as India and China, where rapidly emerging middle classes provided a market for automobiles.

Nevertheless, American automobile companies, especially Detroit’s Big Three—Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors—were slow to move toward the production of compact cars and hybrids because the profit margin on small cars is considerably less than that on the full-size sedans and trucks that American companies had promoted strenuously. Eventually, however, public demand forced struggling American automobile companies to move quite vigorously into the development of hybrid technology and the manufacture and sale of hybrid vehicles.

Fuel Economy

The electrical power component of most hybrid vehicles is provided by lithium-ion batteries. In a typical hybrid car, every time the driver presses the brake, the friction caused by braking automatically begins recharging the batteries the car carries. When the vehicle stops, such as for a traffic light, the gasoline-powered engine automatically shuts off to save fuel; it is then restarted immediately when the accelerator is pressed. The batteries in some hybrids are recharged through connection to the electrical grid (that is, by being plugged into electrical outlets); these plug-in hybrids are more expensive because of the batteries used in the vehicles. Also, although plug-ins are fuel-efficient, they shift to the electrical grid, which often uses electricity produced by the burning of fossil fuels.

Contrary to what many drivers expect, hybrid automobiles deliver better gas mileage in urban, stop-and-start situations than they achieve on the open road at highway speeds. As is true of gasoline-powered vehicles, the mileage that hybrids deliver depends to some extent on the drivers’ habits. Mileage is reduced by fast starts, for example. Hybrid vehicles are generally more expensive than comparable conventional cars, but for consumers the higher prices are offset by the fuel savings that hybrids provide, along with incentives such as the tax credits the US government allows hybrid buyers to claim under specified conditions.

Although experimental hybrid vehicles were produced throughout much of the twentieth century, the first commercially produced hybrid automobile was produced by the Toyota Motor Corporation. The Prius was not available to the general public until October 1997 when it was marketed in Japan. It was enthusiastically received in the United States in 2000 when it was introduced. Honda soon followed with comparable hybrids.

Since the first hybrid vehicles were introduced, automakers have added many additional models to their hybrid lines, offering sport utility vehicles (SUVs), trucks, minivans, convertibles, and mid- and full-size cars along with compacts. Some manufacturers that had not previously pursued the hybrid market, including the American companies Ford and General Motors, have developed hybrid and electric lines of their own. European automobile companies such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volvo, and Volkswagen, while relatively late to the hybrid market, also have hybrid and plug-in choices in their car lines. Companies later produced everything from hybrid electric buses to military and marine vehicles. While not achieving the same high mile-per-gallon rates as their competitors, their hybrid options have signaled a concern for excessive fuel consumption, fuel economy, and the use of alternative fuels.

By April 2020, more than 17 million hybrid vehicles had been sold worldwide; 5.4 million of those sales had occurred in the United States by the end of 2019. Japan was the largest consumer of hybrid vehicles. By January 2020, Toyota was at the front of hybrid sales, with Honda and Ford following closely behind. In 2021, 1.9 million plug-in hybrid electric cars were sold, accounting for around thirty percent of total global hybrid car sales, and 11.3 million battery-powered electric vehicles were on the roads globally. This increase in popularity was predicted to rise based on government policies aimed at reducing emissions. By 2024, reports indicated that while sales of pure electric vehicles had decreased that year, sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles had increased, citing customers' preferences related to price and driving ranges.

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