Hybrids are really part-time electric cars.
They have battery packs and electric motors, like full-time electric cars – but they don’t rely on them exclusively for propulsion, as a full-time electric car does. They aren’t dependent entirely on electricity as their fuel.
Which is why they are the only electric cars that make practical – as well as economic – sense.
Which probably explains why they’re being shunted aside in favor of full-time electric cars (punchline at the end of this rant).
The combustion engine a part-time hybrid carries provides much of the motive force for propulsion; it also provides fuel-on-the-go for the electric side of the drivetrain – converting gas (via combustion) into electricity to continuously recharge the battery pack as the vehicle is driven.
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What a snappy idea!
It eliminates the range problem that the pure electric car has. You can drive the part-time electric car pretty much anywhere without obsessing about the battery’s state of charge. And how far you can go – before it stops.
So long as the tank has gas, you’re good to go. . . right now.
Which brings us to the other problem the part-time electric car hasn’t got – the recharge problem.
Which is really a time problem. But only if you are driving a full-time electric car.
While some part-time electric cars can be plugged-in to recharge none of them have to be. They never force their owner to wait longer to get going again than the owner of any other car – because “recharging” is the same as refueling.
Just fill the hybrid’s gas tank up – same as you would any other car, in the same less than five minutes. The combustion engine the hybrid carries will then convert the gas into electricity, recharging the battery as you drive – as opposed to as you wait.
Part-time electric cars are not only more flexible, more-spur-of-the-moment than full-time electric cars, they are more flexible than other cars, period – being able to toggle between pump and plug, as you like.
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And as you’ve got time for.
Speaking of time . . .
The part-time electric car’s battery pack will probably last longer – and will definitely cost you much less – than a full-time electric car’s battery.
A part-time electric car’s battery doesn’t have to work as hard as a full-time electric car’s battery, which is the only source of motive power (and power, period) in a full-time electric car. The full-time electric car’s battery runs the lights, the air conditioning, the heater – everything in the car that’s electrically powered.
Plus the car.
