The hybrid cars are the most well known for the mileage. Mileage is one of the biggest reasons that attracts people to hybrid cars. The hybrid technology is one of the reasons for better mileage but there are other reasons as well. Hybrid cars features like smaller gas tank, small and efficient engine, better aerodynamics, sturdier tires with increased pressure and lightweight materials help hybrids yield good mileage. It results in money savings on gasoline.
- Light weight: To increase the mileage of the car, weight reduction is one of the easy ways to do it. If the car is heavier, it needs more fuel to get the power. The vehicle with low weight consumes less energy when you drive up the hill or each time you accelerate. To reduce the weight of the car, automakers are using lightweight metals such as magnesium and aluminum. Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) burn the fuel heavily as these have more weight. The hybrid SUVs will get a better mileage than the gasoline SUVs do. But when compared to the lightweight passenger cars, they still give lower mileage.
- Tires: In most cars, the tires are optimized to provide good traction in different weather, minimize noise and a smooth ride. Very few are optimized for the efficiency. Tires surprisingly cause the drag while driving.
Tires on hybrid cars are made using stiffer materials and they are inflated to a higher pressure. The tire pressure is normally higher than the normal passenger cars. It causes a half drag on regular car tires.
- Aerodynamics: On the freeway driving, mostly car engine’s work is pushing your car through the air. This force is called as aerodynamic drag. This drag can reduce in many ways. One of them is reduction of front area of the car. Good aerodynamic features reduce the drag. When drag is reduced, energy utilization will reduce and it will result as fuel economy.
- Energy recovery: When you step on the brake pedal on your hybrid car, the energy will be removed from the car. The faster the car goes, the more the kinetic energy it has. Car brakes turn kinetic energy into heat. The advantage with the hybrid cars is they can convert part of this energy into electric power and store in the battery. This works through the regenerative braking system. In this process, the electric motor works as a generator. It also sends the produced energy to the battery and take when required.
Some tricks used to get mileage in today’s hybrid cars can also be used in any other type of car and a few of them are possible only in hybrids. While you drive a hybrid car you will use gasoline. But it is not as much as you use in traditional gasoline car.