Gas-electric car

The invention: 



A hybrid automobile with both an internal combustion
engine and an electric motor.



The people behind the invention: 



Victor Wouk -   an American engineer
Tom Elliott, executive vice president of

                           American Honda Motor
Company

Hiroyuki Yoshino - president and chief executive officer of
Honda Motor Company

Fujio Cho              -  president of Toyota Motor Corporation







Announcing Hybrid Vehicles 



At the 2000 North American International Auto Show in Detroit,
not only did the Honda Motor Company show off its new Insight
model, it also announced expanded use of its new technology. Hiroyuki
Yoshino, president and chief executive officer, said that Honda’s integrated
motor assist (IMA) system would be expanded to other mass market
models.

The system basically fits a small electric motor directly
on a one-liter, three-cylinder internal combustion engine. The two
share the workload of powering the car, but the gasoline engine does
not start up until it is needed.

The electric motor is powered by a
nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery pack, with the IMA system automatically
recharging the energy pack during braking.
Tom Elliott, Honda’s executive vice-president, said the vehicle
was a continuation of the company’s philosophy of making the latest
environmental technology accessible to consumers.

The $18,000
Insight was a two-seat sporty car that used many innovations to reduce
its weight and improve its performance.
Fujio Cho, president of Toyota, also spoke at the Detroit show,
where his company showed off its new $20,000 hybrid Prius.

The Toyota
Prius relied more on the electric motor and had more energy storage
capacity than the Insight, but was a four-door, five-seat model.
The Toyota Hybrid System divided the power from its 1.5-liter gasoline
engine and directed it to drive the wheels and a generator.

The generator alternately powered the motor and recharged the batteries.
The electric motor was coupled with the gasoline engine to
power the wheels under normal driving. The gasoline engine supplied
average power needs, with the electric motor helping the
peaks; at low speeds, it was all electric. A variable transmission
seamlessly switched back and forth between the gasoline engine
and electric motor or applied both of them.



Variations on an Idea 



Automobiles generally use gasoline or diesel engines for driving,
electric motors that start the main motors, and a means of recharging
the batteries that power starter motors and other devices. In
solely electric cars, gasoline engines are eliminated entirely, and the
batteries that power the vehicles are recharged from stationary
sources. In hybrid cars, the relationship between gasoline engines
and electric motors is changed so that electric motors handle some
or all of the driving. This is at the expense of an increased number of
batteries or other energy-storage devices.
Possible in many combinations, “hybrids” couple the low-end
torque and regenerative braking potential of electric motors with
the range and efficient packaging of gasoline, natural gas, or even
hydrogen fuel power plants. The return is greater energy efficiency
and reduced pollution.
With sufficient energy-storage capacity, an electric motor can
actually propel a car from a standing start to a moving speed. In
hybrid vehicles, the gasoline engines—which are more energy efficient
at higher speeds, then kick in. However, the gasoline engines
in these vehicles are smaller, lighter, and more efficient than
ordinary gas engines. Designed for average—not peak—driving
conditions, they reduce air pollution and considerably improve
fuel economy.
Batteries in hybrid vehicles are recharged partly by the gas engines
and partly by regenerative braking; a third of the energy from
slowing the car is turned into electricity. What has finally made hybrids
feasible at reasonable cost are the new developments in computer
technology, allowing sophisticated controls to coordinate electrical
and mechanical power.One way to describe hybrids is to separate them into two types:
parallel, in which either of the two power plants can propel the vehicle,
and series, in which the auxiliary power plant is used to
charge the battery, rather than propel the vehicle.
Honda’s Insight is a simplified parallel hybrid that uses a small
but efficient gasoline engine. The electric motor assists the engine,
providing extra power for acceleration or hill climbing, helps provide
regenerative braking, and starts the engine. However, it cannot
run the car by itself.
Toyota’s Prius is a parallel hybrid whose power train allows
some series features. Its engine runs only at an efficient speed and
load and is combined with a unique power splitting device. It allows
the car to operate like a parallel hybrid, motor alone, engine
alone, or both. It can act as a series hybrid with the engine charging
the batteries rather than powering the vehicle. It also provides a
continually variable transmission using a planetary gear set that allows
interaction between the engine, the motor, and the differential
which drives the wheels.



Impact 



In 2001 Honda and Toyota marketed gas-electric hybrids that offered
better than 60-mile-per-gallon fuel economy and met California’s
stringent standards for “super ultra-low emissions” vehicles.
Both companies achieved these standards without the inconvenience
of fully electric cars which could go only about a hundred
miles on a single battery charge and required such gimmicks as kerosene-
powered heaters. As a result, other manufacturers were beginning
to follow suit. Ford, for example, promised a hybrid sport
utility vehicle (SUV) by 2003. Other automakers, including General
Motors and Daimler Chrysler, also have announced development of
alternative fuel and low emission vehicles. An example is the ESX3
concept car using a 1.5-liter, direct injection diesel combined with a
electric motor and a lithium-ion battery
While American automakers were planning to offer some “full
hybrids”—cars capable of running on battery power alone at low
speeds—they were focusing more enthusiastically on electrically
assisted gasoline engines called “mild hybrids.” Full hybrids typically increase gas mileage by up to 60 percent; mild hybrids by only
10 or 20 percent. The “mild hybrid” approach uses regenerative
braking with electrical systems of a much lower voltage and storage
capacity than for full hybrids, a much cheaper approach. But there
still is enough energy available to allow the gasoline engine to turn
off automatically when a vehicle stops and turn on instantly when
the accelerator is touched. Because the “mild hybrid” approach
adds only $1000 to $1500 to a vehicle’s price, it is likely to be used in
many models. Full hybrids cost much more, but achieve more benefits.







Victor Wouk



H. Piper, an American engineer, filed the first patent for a

hybrid gas-electric powered car in 1905, and from then until

1915 they were popular, although not common, because they

could accelerate faster than plain gas-powered cars. Then the

gas-only models became as swift. Their hybrid cousins fells by

the wayside.

Interest in hybrids revived with the unheard-of gasoline

prices during the 1973 oil crisis. The champion of their comeback—

the father of the modern hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)—

was VictorWouk. Born in 1919 in New York City,Wouk earned

a math and physics degree from Columbia University in 1939

and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the California Institute

of Technology in 1942. In 1946 he founded Beta Electric

Corporation, which he led until 1959, when he founded and

was president of another company, Electronic Energy Conversion

Corporation. After 1970, he became an independent consultant,

hoping to build an HEV that people would prefer to

gas-guzzlers.

With his partner, Charles Rosen, Wouk gutted the engine

compartment of a Buick Skylark and installed batteries designed

for police cars, a 20-watt direct-current electric motor,

and an RX-2 Mazda rotary engine. Only a test vehicle, it still got

better gas mileage (thirty miles per gallon) than the original

Skylark and met the requirements for emissions control set by

the Clean Air Act of 1970, unlike all American automobiles of

the era. Moreover,Wouk designed an HEV that would get fifty

miles per gallon and pollute one-eighth as much as gas-powered

automobiles. However, the oil crisis ended, gas prices went

down, and consumers and the government lost interest. Wouk

continued to publish, lecture, and design; still, it was not until

the 1990’s that high gas prices and concerns over pollution

made HEV’s attractive yet again.

Wouk holds twelve patents, mostly for speed and braking

controls in electric vehicles but also for air conditioning, high

voltage direct-current power sources, and life extenders for incandescent

lamps.



See also:



 Airplane; Diesel locomotive; Hovercraft; Internal combustion

engine; Supersonic passenger plane;