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Backyard Mechanic
Bigger things predicted for plug-in hybrids
Long past are the days when a hybrid vehicle was a rarity.
Today, you can find hybrid vehicles operating in every part of the country and in all weather conditions. True, they are not as efficient at -40 C driving in Winnipeg as they are at 5 C in balmy Niagara Falls, but the vehicles do operate well in all conditions and even in cold winters can save drivers money on fuel.
Now we're moving into the next generation of vehicles: electrics and plug-in hybrids.
The concept of pure electric vehicles is relatively easy to understand. A battery provides the energy, an electric motor provides the propulsion, and we need to recharge the battery before it goes dead. If you forget, then you're looking at a tow or a very long extension cord. Actually, the long extension cord wouldn't work well because the longer the path of the current, the bigger the conductor needs to be to overcome internal resistance. So a tow is the only real solution.
Fortunately, electric vehicles are designed with gauge displays that show you the available range depending on your actual driving style and power usage, so you shouldn't run out. But drivers shouldn't run out of gas either, and some do.
Electric vehicles excel at short trips, which is what most of us do every day driving back and forth from work and the grocery store or out to a sports event with the children. Vehicles such as Nissan's Leaf, Mitsubishi's MiEV and Ford's Transit Connect and Focus will be some of the first electric vehicles on the road (the Leaf is already for sale in limited quantities), but there could be as many as 12 electric vehicles available by the end of this year.
Hybrids have been around long enough that most of us understand that they employ a combination of gasoline power and electric power. In the future, we could see other combinations, such as diesel and electric or gas and fuel cells -- an alternative form of electric energy to a battery.
The advantage of a hybrid is that it will offer good fuel economy around town operating mainly on electric energy. Operating the gasoline motor at higher speeds, range is limited by access to gasoline filling stations. Even this is changing, with Ford introducing its next-generation electric systems on the 2013 Fusion that can move the vehicle up to 100 km/h on electricity alone.
So what is a plug-in hybrid? In simple terms, it's a hybrid vehicle that can be plugged in to the power grid to recharge the battery rather than relying only on the gasoline engine to charge it.
I would classify the Chevy Volt as a plug-in hybrid because it can connect to the electrical grid to recharge the battery, but it also has a gasoline engine that provides power for extended driving. I'm sure GM would disagree with me and call the Volt an electric car because it's actually moved almost totally by the electric motor, but it still uses hybrid power supplies.
Plug-in hybrids will play a much bigger role in the near future, and one of the differences between them and a regular hybrid, other than the ability to plug it in, is the use of more powerful battery packs. The bigger battery gives the plug-in hybrid a longer range on electric operation only, and the gasoline engine usually will be used only when the battery is mostly depleted or if you're travelling long distances. Even then, if you had the option of plugging in every time you stopped for coffee or a break, you might be able to drive almost totally on electricity.
To give you an idea of the savings possible with this type of vehicle, fuel economy for them is rated as MPGe, or miles-per-gallon equivalency. These are U.S. figures, but Ford estimates that at current average power rates, the MPGe will be 100 MPGe for the 2013 Fusion Energi plug-in.
If you converted that directly to Imperial gallons, it would be 125 MPGe. But converting isn't that easy. We'll have to wait and see how Transport Canada rates them, but you can be sure the fuel economy will be good.
Jim Kerr is an experienced mechanic, instructor and member of the Automobile Journalists' Association of Canada.