Hybrid Electric Vehicles For Dummies...It's good to see so much recent mainstream press about the electric car, as opposed to the century or so of publicity we've been inundated with about gas powered transporters. You know, Tin Lizzie's, Oldsmobile's Hydra-Matic transmission, the Ford Pinto, OnStar technology. I would much rather read about battery packs and alternative energy and recharging stations and electric cars -- it makes me feel like I'm actually living in the future instead of dreaming about it.

It can be quite an adjustment moving from the gasoline vehicles we've been using for such a long time to the new electric cars. It'll take some effort to understand the new workings and terminology, so let's get started. BEV The simplest EV is the Battery Electric Vehicle or BEV, which uses only an electric motor and a battery pack for propulsion.

Let's start with the Canada-based ZENN Motor Company. Between 2006 and 2010, they produced a perfect example of an electric car on the first rung of this ladder, a low-speed vehicle called the ZENN. (Zero Emissions No Noise) It was a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle or NEV. NEV's can be driven where posted speed limits are no higher than 35-45mph.

Unfortunately, ZENN ceased production of their "Zero Emissions No Noise" all-electric vehicle in 2010. However, Tesla Motors, born out of Silicon Valley, is finally on target and delivering the Tesla Roadster, a two-seater sports car that can get 240 miles on a full charge.

The motor produces 248 hp, and the car effortlessly reaches speeds in excess of 100 MPH, covers the quarter-mile in less than 13 seconds with speeds of 104 mph though, the top speed is electronically limited to 125 MPH. This beefed up BEV is expensive -- as of 2011, you can purchase one, if you can find one, for around $110,000 plus.

Tesla Motors is also manufacturing a five passenger first-rate sedan. Tesla is taking reservations for the Model S and tells us they'll produce 20,000 Model S units per-year. The Tesla's Model S, allegedly, will be available in late 2011. Small not-so-affordable BEVs for the city-dweller are becoming available. One is the Smart Fortwo.

Remember the Smart car Tom Hanks drove in the movie adaptation of "the DaVinci Code"? Now smart GmbH, a division of Daimler is now leasing their all electric EV called the "Smart Fortwo ed" in very limited numbers ("Team 250") for the U.S. market.

EPA gives the Smart Fortwo ED an official miles-per-gallon rating of 94 mpg city and 79 mpg highway It can journey 63 miles per charge. Smart wants to sell the Smart Fortwo ED in 40 markets by 2012 and assures us by 2013 the smart fortwo ed will be available in substantial numbers. Finally the concepts a certainty. Another smaller electric vehicle is the Reva.

The REVA is powered by lead acid batteries, reaches speeds of 50 mph and can travel 50 miles per charge. An substitute version of the REVA is the REVA L-ion. It runs on lithium ion batteries and can travel 75 miles per charge. Their REVA NXG is scheduled for a 2012 release and expected to outperform the previous vehicles. A few larger family-style BEVs are being produced and sold.

The most distinguished is produced Nissan Motor Company. It's the Nissan Leaf (Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable, Family car) It became available in the U.S.A. last December. This five door hatchback will be distributed worldwide by 2012. The is all-electric vehicle runs on an electric motor with a lithium ion battery pack.

The problems with BEVs are simple: limited driving range before needing a recharge and the time required to recharge a battery pack. Design improvements have already been made to extend driving range to over 300 miles and to reduce charging times to under two hours via "smart" chargers. HEV The second category are the hybrid gasoline and electric vehicles or HEVs. They're the most common and have been around since the 1990s.

These hybrid electric vehicles use an electric motor and an internal combustion engine to produce power. In a parallel hybrid, both are connected to the transmission and both transmit power to the wheels -- also, the braking systems and the gasoline engine charge the batteries. These vehicles work better than non-hybrids in stop-and-go city conditions and in highway driving. The best examples of parallel hybrids are the Honda Civic and Honda Insight.

In a series hybrid, the electrical motor provides all the power to the wheels, and the gasoline engine and the braking system charge the batteries. Larger battery packs than those in parallel hybrids makes the vehicle's city performance equivalent to the parallel hybrid, but not quite as efficient in highway driving -- the series hybrid appears to run best at continual low speeds. Power-split or series-parallel hybrid Serial-parallel or power-split hybrids combine features of both types.

Depending on the situation, both engines or only the electrical motor supply power to the wheels. These vehicles are generally more efficient than either a pure-series or a pure-parallel. Examples are the current hybrid models put out by GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Lexus. The most popular of these is the Toyota Prius. Advantages of a hybrid are obvious: electrical motor efficiencies, gasoline engine tuning and capture of braking energy for the battery pack.

The problems for a hybrid are just as obvious -- it needs gasoline and the engines are more complicated. But, these vehicles, by their nature, eliminate the recharging and range problems of the BEVs, and appear to be a better stepping stone from the present to the future.

PHEV One recent advance in electric car technology is the plug-in electric hybrid or PHEV, which has a battery pack larger than an HEV, a switch to allow the hybrid to run in all-electric mode and a plug that allows recharging from any conventional wall outlet or alternative energy source, such as a wind turbine or a photo-voltaic array.

The Chevrolet Volt is the first to be built from scratch on this concept. Allowing the car to run all-electric at for 40 miles.