By Jack Taylor on July 12th, 2009
Hybrid cars have well and truly entered the consciousness of the car-buying public in the last few years, as ‘greener motoring’ has become a hot topic. We have all heard that these cars are more eco-friendly than ‘normal’ vehicles and recently it has became trendy to own a hybrid. But how many of us know just what is under the bonnet of a hybrid car? Let’s take a look at exactly how a hybrid works and why it’s a greener option than a regular car.
Put simply, a hybrid car is one that combines an internal-combustion engine with an electric motor, powered by sizeable batteries, to propel the vehicle. There are two types of hybrid car: parallel and series (also known as serial). In the first case, both the combustion engine and electric motor are connected to the mechanical transmission, which means that both engines are capable of powering the car, at the same time or separately. In series hybrids, only the electric motor is linked to the transmission, and it alone propels the car. The combustion engine is connected to a generator and is used purely to recharge the electric motor’s batteries.
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By Jack Taylor on April 15th, 2009
Hybrid autos were said to be expensive and this false believe which lingers on has to change. This impression was caused by the high prices the hybrid autos had when the new technology was introduced. If you were to spend more on a hybrid auto than you’d have spent otherwise, you were unlikely to ever get your money back – even if you got rid of a gigantic, fuel-sucking SUV. But this was true when hybrids were really expensive and the initial cost outweighed the gas savings. But it doesn’t seem to be true anymore.
Today the petrol prices are rising, the used cars are getting cheaper and the new car industry got to lower the prices to be selling at all. Now, the hybrid autos are found just among other new and used cars when it comes to price range. Some estimate that a new hybrid may even be cheaper than the used one. The example car for costs estimation was 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid and John O’Dell claims in his article that price drop on the car market combined with the industry’s ubiquitous cut-rate financing offers, has made it cheaper to buy new than used cars. The hybrid autos’ manufacturer has lowered the costs of purchasing the new cars so much that it was cheaper to buy 2009 Civic than, the same, but one year old used car. The research was based on many factors and took into account several reasons for price reductions, like the national interest rate deal when choosing between new and used car.
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