The Road Ahead for Hybrid Cars

Owing to the success of the hybrid car launch, manufactures are motivated to improve the standards of their hybrid series with a view to attract a wider customer base. The reviews about hybrid cars show that some of them need improvement in their capacity, others need improvement in the mileage. And of course, fuel efficiency being the most important concern and the benchmark of the hybrid technology, an efficient fuel technology will bring the green signal for hybrid market.

We are now becoming familiar with the term ‘bio-diesel’. Bio-diesel refers to the oil extracted from the vegetables or plants and used as fuel instead of conventional fuels such as diesel and petrol, or it can be mixed with these fuels in any proportion. Biodiesel is easily biodegradable and is completely free of lead, sulfur and other chemical additives, which are present in the fossil fuels. It has been found successful on European roads for many years. If the bio-diesel technology is successfully implemented in the existing cleaner hybrid cars, it will be a great hit on the roads.

E85 – a mixture of 85% Ethanol and 15% gasoline is a successfully tested fuel in hybrid cars. In January 2006 Ford launched its first hybrid car with E85 technology. Ford is planning to come up with more models including Mazda Tribute Hybrid, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Ford Five Hundred, Mercury Montego, Ford Edge and Mercury MKX which implements a better E-85 technology.

‘Hydraulic Hybrid Cars’ is the term introduced by Ford Motor Co. in association with the U.S. EPA. They claim that it can improve the fuel efficiency in heavier trucks by about 25-35 percent in city driving. The HLA technology utilizes hydraulic pumps and hydraulic tanks to store energy instead of the battery and motor system in the electric-gas hybrids of the popular models. If implemented successfully in the hybrid cars, especially the SUVs and smaller trucks, this technology will ensure a cost-effective and fuel-friendly driving compared to earlier hybrid models.

Hydrogen hybrids – A revolutionary concept, though difficult to achieve, will produce a 100% efficient fuel with the combined success of the existing fuel-efficient hybrid technology with the ‘zero’ emission hydrogen fuel. The estimated cost is also lower than the normal hybrid ones. Though it will take a considerable time to shape the technology completely meeting the challenges, a recent development in solid storage medium for hydrogen vehicles raises a ray of hope in this.

Fuel cell – It is a promising technology of the future provided some improvements such as the reduction in size and weight of the fuel cell and improving the infrastructure for refining and supplying hydrogen gas are made to it. The carmakers are confident of this technology as it can be seen from the records of DaimlerChrysler who invested US$1billion in the research of fuel cells and built ten fuel cell vehicles, each one powered by Ballard fuel cells. Honda has tested its fuel cell car, the FCX successfully.
No doubt, the future is very bright for hybrids. The market has to just wait and watch to see who is going to hit the target.

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March 3, 2007 | Filed Under Technology