Hybrid Vehicle Reports
The Current Hybrid Vehicle Market



The number of hybrid vehicles available to consumers continues to grow from year to year.


In 2005:

Ford is offering the first Hybrid SUV. The 2005 Ford Escape.

General Motors is continuing their offer of Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra hybrid fullsize pickup trucks. The Silverado and Sierra hybrids where introduced in 2004.

Toyota has plans to increase their Hybrid offering in 2005 and will also be offering hybrid SUV's with hybrid versions of the Toyota Highlander and Lexus RX400 SUV's

Honda will be offering a hybrid version of the Accord for 2005.

In addition to the new hybrids for 2005, the Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius are still available to consumers and offer exceptional gas mileage and are environmentally friendly, emitting less global warming and smog-forming emissions than most conventional vehicles.

Hybrid Vehicle Benefits


Mileage


Milage is a big factor in selecting a Hybrid Vehicle over normal ICE - mechanical Vehicles.
What kind of milage can be expected from a Hybrid Vehicle?

NREL publiched a report on the matter in 1997. The "Analysis of the Fuel Economy Benefit of Drivetrain Hybridization", where NREL’s flexible ADvanced VehIcle SimulatOR (ADVISOR) was used to simulate the fuel milage of a ICEV (Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle), a Parallel Hybrid and a Serial Hybrid. All diesel engined.

The following is concluded in the report:

- The parallel HV is 30% more fuel-efficient than the ICEV on the urban cycle, 14% more fuel-efficient on the highway cycle, and 24% more fuel-efficient on the combination.
- The series hybrid follows the same trend, being 26% more fuel-efficient than the ICEV on the urban cycle, 7% more fuelefficient on the highway cycle, and 18% more fuel-efficient on the combination.

Note that both the parallel and series hybrids get similar fuel economy improvement on the urban cycle, but that the parallel hybrid gets over twice the fuel economy improvement of the series on the highway cycle.
This is due in part to the parallel hybrid’s Hybrid Power Unit efficiently (especially on the highway cycle) supplying power directly to the wheels, rather than having its output converted from mechanical to electrical and back to mechanical power, as occurs in the series hybrid.

Driving Cycle Series HV Parallel HVICEV
Urban Cycle26.6 km/l (62.6 MPG)27.4 km/l (64.5 MPG)21.1 km/l (49.6 MPG)
Highway Cycle34.1 km/l (80.2 MPG)36.4 km/l (85.6 MPG)32.0 km/l (75.3 MPG)
Combined29.5 km/l (69.5 MPG)30.8 km/l (30.8 MPG)24.9 km/l (24.9 MPG)


Acual Mileage figures

Here are som actual mileage figures for the current crop of Hybrid Cars and SUV's.
(Source: American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)

Make and Model Specifications Fuel Econ. City Fuel Econ. Highway
Honda Civic GX 1.7L 4, auto (natural gas) 30 34 57¹
Honda Insight 1.0L 3, auto 57 56 56
Toyota Prius 1.5L, 4, auto 60 51 53
Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5L, 4, auto 47 48 51
Toyota Corolla 1.8L, 4, manual 32 41 44
Toyota Echo 1.5L, 4, manual 35 43 43
Nissan Sentra 1.8L, 4, manual 28 35 42
Honda Civic HX 1.7L, 4, manual 36 44 42
Pontiac Vibe / Toyota Matrix 1.8L, 4, manual 30 36 41
Mazda 3 2.0L, manual 28 35 41
Ford Escape Hybrid 2.3L 4, auto 36 31 40
Ford Focus / Focus Vagon 2.0L 4, manual 26 35 40

¹"Natural gas" mileage converted to mpg equivalent

MPG vs. Km/L vs. L/100Km

Simple milage conversion table according to the TDI Club milage conversion

MPG (US)

Km/L

L/100

10

4.25

23.52

20

8.5

11.76

30

12.75

7.84

40

17.00

5.88

50

21.25

4.70

60

25.51

3.92

What about the big trucks?


What benefits does Hybrid Technogy bring to the Heavy Trucks?

Notes from the Hybrid Truck Users Forum, october 2003, stated the following benefits of Hybrid Electric Propulsion in heavy truck applications:

  • Reduced emmisions (up to 90%)
  • 25%-50% better fuel economy
  • Improved driveability
  • Improved perfomance
  • Reduced maintenence (brakes, transmission)
  • Uses Standard Fuel
  • Similar to todays Vehicles
  • Flexible Electric Power awailable in the field (no need to tow generators)

Attractive benefits indeed!

Stay tuned as we dig deepers into these matters!

The HEMTT A3 Hybrid Truck

Oshkosh have produced an impressive Hybrid Truck and although this truck is focussed on military applications the technology used is a precursor for what to expect in commercial heavy truck applications.

Special vehicles


The Quantum Aggressor

The Quantum Aggressor is a Fuel cell powered Hybrid. An AMV - Alternative Mobility Vehicle built for Stealth.
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