The impact on our culture from Hybrid cars



Group # 9

Ken Schwank

Ryan Connor

Dr. Schnackenberg

Hybrid Cars

The world needs to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels, and the faster the better. With twenty-seven percent of greenhouse gas emissions coming from transportation, Hybrid cars is a great place to start (Global Warming). The purely electrical car has too many convenience problems for a contemporary consumer, while the cars of today are wreaking havoc on our environment. The best solution so far has come in the form of Hybrid cars. Two manufacturers, namely Toyota and Honda are pioneering the idea very successfully. If these trailblazers are successful in promoting the ‘green’ Hybrid, how will that impact our culture?

First off how do they work? Hybrids use an electric motor and internal-combustion engine that are both connected to the wheels by the same transmission, and work in tandem. The coordination between the electric motor and the combustion engine is computer controlled. Each manufacture has there own specific technology but they all use pretty much the same set up. The electric motor helps power the car in idle and during acceleration. The gas engine takes over while cruising and when doing so it powers the drive-train and helps to recharge the electric motor’s battery. During deceleration or braking, the electric motor provides braking toque, which in return generates electricity and energy that is normally wasted is used. The changes between the electric motor and internal combustion engine are undetectable to the driver.

The Toyota Prius is rated at fifty-nine miles per gallon in the city by the EPA (Markus) and with the price of gasoline expected to continue climbing to the three dollar range by summer (VanderKnyff). With everyone trying to save some money at the gas pumps, hybrids can offer some much needed relief. Most of the currently offered Hybrid cars are small but Ford does offer the Escape SUV and many other companies plan to do the same. Toyota has seen an incredible demand for their Prius, exceeding what they had planned for. Several carmakers have plans to offer hybrids by 2007 mostly taking their existing lineup and putting a hybrid power train in them. If the price of gasoline continues to go up the demand for these fuel efficient vehicles will certainly follow suit.

The cars will have impacts on other areas of our culture as well. They are much quieter than a regular car and since they run on the electric motor at low speeds, the noise in urban environments may be reduced.

The only problem with the Hybrid idea is that it is still dependant on burning fossil fuels. The technology to get away from gasoline is there with things like hydrogen powered cars and the hydrogen fuel cell, but the infrastructure is not ready to have these vehicles marketed to the public. This is one reason why the Hybrid is a good temporary solution, but we need a much cleaner motor that is not dependant on fossil fuels.

Works Cited

Exum, Kaitlen “The Reference Shelf, The car and Its Future”

New York: H.W. Wilson Company

VanderKnyff, Rick. “Why Gas Prices Will Keep on Rising”. MSN Money. 3-18-05

Markus, Frank. “Fuel Economists Wanted”. February 2004. Car & Driver Magazine. 3-19-05

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Global Warming – Emissions”. 3-19-05 < >

Nice, Karim. “How Hybrid Cars Work.”

Karim Nice holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University. At Cornell, Karim became interested in hybrid electric cars while working on the Cornell Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, which placed third at the HEV Challenge in Detroit. His interest in HEVs lead him to Detroit to work designing some of the first production electric vehicles. Eventually, Detroit's cold winter winds blew him to North Carolina, where he worked designing backhoe loaders for Caterpillar. Karim was also a senior project engineer for a small consulting company, where he did everything from mechanical design to computer programming.

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