Saving the environment is moving to mainstream

Tag : Button Generator

Welcome to the new world where saving the environment by driving ahybrid-powered automobile is completely mainstream, having movedfrom George Jetson-like Honda Insights and first-generation ToyotaPrius look-at-me-saving-gas stylings to the mainstream normalcy ofthe new Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid.
Gasoline/electric hybrid technology now graces Toyota Camrys,sporty Nissan Altimas and even gargantuan Chevrolet Tahoes.
What those ever more pedestrian body styles hide, however, are evermore advanced fuel-saving technologies.
The Malibu (along with Saturn's Aura and Vue Green Line), forinstance, is what GM dubs a mild hybrid. What distinguishes GM'smild hybrids from the more complex, or full, hybrid is that theMalibu's BAS (belt-alternator-starter) system cannot drive theMalibu's wheels on its own.
The BAS system's 36-volt motor-generator takes the place of theengine's normal alternator. Unlike the traditional alternator, themotor-generator can actually help drive the rear wheels. However,since it is connected directly to the motor via a belt, the BAScannot drive the Malibu by itself; it always works in conjunctionwith the engine.
It also starts the motor instantaneously after it has shut downwhile stopped at a traffic light and regenerative braking tops upthe system's batteries while slowing down. The added torque fromthe motor-generator also allows the automatic transmission's torqueconverter to lock up sooner, improving fuel mileage.
It's a relatively low-tech system that only increases the base 2.4LMalibu's 9.6/6.5 litres-per-100-kilometres city/highway fueleconomy to 8.5/6.2. That relatively modest amount of increasedtechnology is also why the hybrid version only costs $4,000 morethan a base Malibu.
It's worth noting that the much-ballyhooed Honda Insight was also amild hybrid. Instead of being belt-driven, its 12-horsepowerelectric motor was located between the Insight's 1.0-litre gasolinemotor and its transmission, but it, too, could not drive thestreamlined Honda on its own.
The next step up the hybrid evolutionary ladder is best typified bythe iconic Toyota Prius.
A full hybrid, the Prius has completely separate electric andgasoline power plants connected by a planetary transmission.
And unlike the Malibu, the Prius's electric motor can drive itsfront wheels independently of the gas engine. In fact, depending onthe sensitivity of the driver's right foot, a Prius can attain asmuch as 30 kilometres an hour before the gasoline engine kicks in.In typical use, however, the electric and gasoline engines worksimultaneously, controlled by a microcomputer for the bestcombination of performance and economy.