The hybrids cars drives to the future

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 03:59 Last Updated on Saturday, 28 March 2009 16:37

In the middle of a widespread pessimism, obtained by coup of economic downturns, there is a reason to think in green, and more when we observe that hybrid vehicles maintain their level of sales. Of the brands marketed prototypes who respect the environment, Toyota is the fastest increase has been seen with her pioneering model Pirus, while, on the other hand, the Honda Civic Hibryd is not given so much joy their manufacturers. Lexus, one of the leading firms in this field with up to three hybrid models LS 600h, GS 450h and RX 400h, has maintained their level of sales. In a step of the hybrid cars are environmentally friendly, it represent 50% of  Citroen range.

While some predicts that the future lies in the hands of such cars, and for that is only needed time and trust, many others are currently looking for power and economy when purchasing a new vehicle. The appearance of the hybrids is similar to conventional car. The difference is found in its interior, which uses more than one source of energy, combining an internal combustion engine with electric, thereby optimizing its performance.

When the internal combustion engine works, it does with utmost efficiency. If it generates more energy than necessary, serves as the electric generator and charge the battery system. In other situations, only the electric motor works by feeding on the energy stored in the battery.

Normally, the hybrid vehicle is moving electricity stored in batteries at low speeds, as in town, and when it needs more power, it enters the conventional engine. In addition to ecological and environmental aspects, these cars offer a number of advantages in performance and conduct, among which is the virtual absence of noise, plus a greater smoothness and ease of use. On the other hand, recharge is faster, significantly reduces levels of consumption and the level of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere is much lower than those of a conventional car.

For now, only three brands, Honda, Lexus and Toyota sold a model of its kind in Spain, but the fact that other firms have announced shortly the launch of similar cars confirms the strength of this sector, where manufacturers are fully involved in the development of new prototypes, such as Honda, which recently announced their planned launch of a hybrid sport in 2010, based on the concept car CR-Z.

But really not all is so favorable to the creation of hybrids, as their biggest problem is cost. The batteries used are very expensive, so it is already exploring the possibility of incorporating air batteries to replace the current ones. The new system, the result of a research worker from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, use the stored energy of the piston engine to compress air.

This new technology could save the same amount of fuel than the current hybrid cars that use gasoline and electricity, but would be significantly cheaper. This compressed air is then used to operate the piston and drive the vehicle. According to preliminary estimates, this system would only cost 20%, compared to 200% required by the current hybrids.

The idea is not new. The challenge is to get efficiency. The compressed air tanks store much less energy than electric batteries, and that limits the energy savings. The proposal of the leader of the research team, the engineer Lino Gazella, is to harness the pneumatic energy in place of the braking energy.

Gazella replacing a two liters gasoline engine for a small 750 ml. This uses compressed air to accelerate. The dense air provides the oxygen to burn more fuel, a technique called supercompression.

In addition, cars with compressed air propulsion could go up to 1280 kilometers on a single charge, and recharge is less than three minutes. But to see this project become a reality will have to wait, but the future is painted in green to get to the automotive world to say goodbye to the black smoke.