INDEPTH : What are HEVs, parts and working principle

INDEPTH - On types of power trains in Electric Vehicles

 

Toyota Prius accounted for over 51% of all the hybrid electric vehicle sales in the year 2012, as reported by ADFC of US Gov.

What is a Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) ?

BMW i8 is a hybrid sports car. image source : unsplash

A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a class of electric vehicles that utilise a combined power trained i.e. they have both a conventional fuel oil internal combustion engine and an additional electric motors to power the vehicle.

Why were HEVs so popular?

 

Toyota Prius owned over 51% of HEV market. image source : afdc.energy.gov

HEVs dominated the EV market in a time when the BEV (battery electric vehicle) technology was still as its infancy.

Advantages of HEVs :

 

Toyota Prius 2021. image source : toyota.com

# Has fewer emissions compared to traditional car 

# Because of a mixed power train setup, they achieve better gas mileage

# It delegates the range issues of a Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)

# It helps ease the transition of companies and communities into BEV

# Gives people little taste of the future

Components of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle :

Components of hybrid electric vehicle. image source : afdc.energy.gov

The common components in an HEV are:

#1. Engine - 

A traditional engine powered by petrol, gas, gasoline or diesel.

#2. Energy storage System (ESS) -  

These are in the from of batteries that store the electric power.

#3. Transmission system - 

With two separate power sources inside in the hybrid car, this is where the companies get to showoff their creativity and technologies.

#4. Inverter - 

It converts the DC power from battery system to AC current for the motors.

#5. Controller - 

The brain that controls this elaborate system and tells the power distribution and delivery amount for each motor.

#6. Charging system for the battery

#7. Re-Gen system -

Regenerative breaking collects as portion of the kinetic energy back into the battery when the brakes are applies.

How Does a hybrid electric vehicle work?

Hybrid electric vehicle HEV. image source : unsplash

There are multiple flavors of how companies attack the load balancing in HEV, I will post a separate article to discuss each method in depth, but in a general sense when we think of HEV we expect:

#1. You push the accelerator pedal, this signals to the controller.

#2. Assuming you are starting from a halt, it delivers power to the electric motors in conjunction to that of the engine,

#3. As electric motors produce greater and more consistent torque output, achieving faster accelerations.

#4. Alternatively, you may run the car on Battery power or engine power only.

Problems of HEV :

#1. Only Electric power range is very less (50-100 miles only)

#2. Still produces a substantial volume of emissions

#3. Makes maintenance and repair rather complicated as it maybe better to get servicing from the OEM themselves

 

NEXT Read :

INDEPTH - Battery Electric Vehicle ( BEV )

INDEPTH - PLUG-IN HYBRID Electric Vehicle ( PHEV )

INDEPTH - MILD HYBRID Electric Vehicle ( MHEV )

INDEPTH - FUEL Cell Electric Vehicle ( FCEV )

 

HEV type - electric vehicle | Kriyatirtha Paul