Hybrids, and something new

Virtually every car company is now producing or working on a hybrid car, which can run off petroleum fuel or electrical power, or a combination. They get substantially better fuel mileage than standard fuel engine cars.What many don't know is that a couple of new classes of cars have snuck in between the hybrid and the pure electric.One is the plug-in hybrid. Simply, it's a hybrid car that also lets you charge its batteries from the grid.

The plug-in Prius, to be available next year (2009) will be the first internationally marketed plug-in hybrid.But that's not all. There is now also the the extended range electric car.Nissan's Ghosn said his firm could produce Renault's electric Megane in an extended range model. That car would have a gasoline engine on board—but it would only recharge batteries. It would not directly drive the car.

It would be something like carrying a little generator along.In the Wall Street Journal Thursday (May 15, 2008), Ghosn said the range extender could push the 100-mile range of a pure electric to 400 miles.Chevrolet's Volt car, to be out in 2010, will also be an electric with a range extender. Chevy says it could have a range of 640 miles.What this all suggests is that we're going to have to develop a new automotive lexicon.

It used to be you had the car, the truck, and later the SUV.There's the gasoline fuel vehicle, and the diesel, and the natural gas-powered car.And the one that can use up to 85 percent ethanol, the E85.The straight electric vehicle (EV, plus of course modifications like the NEV and the UEV above). This one you just plug into the wall when the batteries are discharged.The hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) of which there are now more than a dozen models on the market.