What sets this Ford Escape SUV apart from other Escape´s and SUV's?
It is a Hybrid Vehicle!
What constitutes a Hybrid vehicle?
Is a hybrid vehicle defined by the mix of technologies?
Are some technology or principle combinations more hybrid than others?
There are many different definitions out there.
I would like to embrace a definition that includes hydraulic drive. I like the definition from centrica.com, as it is simple and does not exclude technologies like hydraulics, springs and water wheels (a diesel driven water pump, pumping water on a water wheel driving the wheels of the vehicle is silly, except for a toy - but you get the point ).
So for now we can use the following definition.
A Hybrid vehicle is:
"A vehicle with more than one power source such as a small internal combustion engine and an electric motor."
If we apply this definition to a number of possible cases we can have:
Where ICE stands for
Internal Combustion Engine.
Do we have more, relevant, drive trains than mechanical, electric and hydraulic? Please send me a note!
We can then carry on and find more permutations by replacing the primary power source (ICE) with a:
As you see the possibilities are endless, but some are currently more economically viable than others at least at this point in time.