Hybrid Cars Hit the Road

▪ 2005

      Hybrid cars began grabbing headlines in 2004, especially after movie stars were seen arriving at the Academy Awards in these environmentally friendly vehicles. With worries over air pollution and with gasoline prices topping $2 a gallon, the public imagination has seized on hybrid cars as a high-tech, high-fashion solution.

      The state of California provided the major commercial impetus in the U.S. for the development of electric (battery), electric-gasoline (hybrid), and fuel-cell vehicles. In 1990 the California Air Resources Board mandated a schedule for sales of light-duty vehicles in the state in order to reduce air pollution. The first modern hybrid cars, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, went on sale in Japan in 1997 and 1999, respectively, and in the U.S. in very limited numbers in 2000. Greater numbers—although still fewer than 50,000 in the U.S. (compared with some 17 million gasoline vehicles sold each year)—became available with the 2004 model year. Sales took off, with dealers reporting waiting lists of from six months to a year. American manufacturers countered in the summer and fall of 2004. Ford introduced the Escape, the world's first hybrid sport utility vehicle; General Motors offered hybrid versions of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks; and DaimlerChrysler came up with a hybrid version of its Dodge Ram truck.

      Hybrids typically use nickel–metal-hydride (NiMH) batteries to provide power for an electric motor that shares duties with a small gasoline motor. Either or both motors may be operating, according to driving conditions. When the car is idling at a stop, going downhill, or cruising at low speeds, the gasoline motor is shut off. (Unlike conventional gasoline vehicles, hybrids get better mileage in the city than on the highway.) Under full-throttle acceleration, when climbing hills, or while cruising at high speeds, the two engines operate in tandem by means of a sophisticated electronic transmission. When decelerating or braking, the force used to slow the car is harnessed to charge the battery.

      Although non-internal-combustion automobile engines were not mass-produced for decades, many alternatives were tried over the years. Throughout the late 19th century, electric, steam, and gasoline vehicles competed fender-to-fender in the marketplace. There were 1,684 steam, 1,575 electric, and 963 gasoline vehicles manufactured in the U.S. in 1900. Electric vehicles lost out to gas-driven cars because of disadvantages in the weight and range of their storage batteries and, especially, owing to their cost. In 1912 the gasoline-powered Ford Model T, for example, sold for $550, while a typical electric vehicle cost three times as much. The earliest production-model hybrid, the Woods gasoline-electric of 1916, sold for even more—$2,650. Today's hybrid vehicles suffer from a similar cost disadvantage because of their extra motor and batteries. With an eye to market share, hybrid automakers have so far underwritten their costs in an effort to keep prices in the $20,000 range and competitive with standard cars. They are gambling that mileage figures in the range of 50–60-mpg (4–5-litres-per100 km), the clean and quiet operation, and the stylishness of the new vehicles will continue to attract buyers even as manufacturer and government price subsidies begin to be lifted.

William L. Hosch

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