what is the difference between a hybrid car, an electric car, and a regular gas powered car?

Making electricity and transferring it to batteries, and then using that energy to move people miles is much less polluting that just running a gas engine. A hybrid uses both electric and gas, often charging a battery with the gas engine. This is a pretty efficient use of energy. It does not, however, keep the pollution in industrial areas and away from cities, also the gas engine can still make noise, though, this is not a problem even with today’s hybrids.

Oh, so you want us to… not use cars? Well, that sounds all well and good to some people, I’m sure, but that would destroy… well… almost everything advanced, and much that isn’t advanced. I’m sure it would lead to the death of millions of poor people. So, we are trying to make things more efficient with pollution in preferable areas and in concentration that make it more efficient to clean. We would like to keep the freedom of automobile use.

But, yes, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, does include REDUCE.

Hybrid cars work off of gasoline engines that switch to electricity in overdrive. All electric needs no gasoline to provide power. Both vehicles are good for the environment but the cost out weigh the benefits.

An electric car runs solely by an electric motor but it can get its electricity in a number of ways. It could be transmitted to the electric vehicle from the roadway or overhead wires like electric trains. It could be stored on board in batteries, flywheels or ultracapacitors. Or it could be generated onboard from solar panels, a fuel cell (fuel cell vehicle) or an internal combustion engine (ICE) attached to a generator (a series hybrid vehicle.) There is enough excess off peak electrical capacity to charge more than 70% of our present fleet at night.1

A hybrid car can be a parallel hybrid like the prius which uses both an ICE and an electric motor to power the vehicle together or at different times. A hybrid can also be an essentially electric vehicle which only uses an ICE to power a generator that provides electricity for an electric motor which alone is responsible for moving the vehicle. Then it is a series hybrid. But either one is only using gasoline although in a more efficient manner. A plug in hybrid may first charge its batteries using electricity from the grid or even installed solar panels and augment the energy storage that is contained in gasoline.

ICE vehicles can be run with gasoline and they are then gas powered vehicles or they can be fueled with diesel fueled and they then have internal combustion engines. Part of the pollution from ICE engines comes from the fuel and some comes from compressing air in high heat conditions (NOX)2

Here is a chart of the relative efficiencies of ICE vehicles, hybrids and a purely electric car: http://serieshybrid.com/FreedomFormula/images/Drivetrain_Comparison.pdf

It is a Myth that electric vehicles only transfer pollution. Repeating this bit of nonsense does no one credit. The combination of the electric vehicle and even the most polluting power plant is much more efficient than an ICE vehicle without even considering transportation of fuels, water and soil pollution, and the refinery pollution.3 You never hear about the pollution of a coal spill because you simply pick up what spilled. It is a solid. But a liquid crude oil spill is an entirely different matter. Oil is peaking and production will begin to decline worldwide. Electricity can be made from the sun and will be made renewable more and more. You could always buy a velomobile.

First off, electricity is not something you find on the ground, it is something you make, a way to easily store energy and easier to use – versatile. Example: hard to use straight nuclear power to power your ipod.

Real Issue: Sustainability. The way we are living is not sustainable, we need to use less energy or generate energy through renewable means.

“What about the pollution created making the electricity? Aren’t you just moving the pollution?
Even on today’s electrical grid, plug-in cars are cleaner than the average gasoline car. But there’s more. Utilities have plenty of excess generating capacity at night which could charge millions of plug-in cars. While electricity is getting cleaner and more renewable every year, even the cleanest gasoline car becomes ever more polluting. An electric car, on the other hand, just gets cleaner over time as the grid gets cleaner.” (pluginamerica.org)

“Won’t all these cars require us to build even more power plants?
Just the opposite. A January 2007 Pacific National Laboratory study shows that if we woke up tomorrow and all our vehicles could plug in, today’s grid could support more than three-quarters of them charging at night without building a single power plant.” (calcars)

Also, shifting pollution out of crowded cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Full electrics: need good big expensive maybe-bad-for-environment 200+ mile range battery
Current Hybrids: (like the Prius) DO NOT PLUG IN to recharge, they get their electricity from their gas engines and through regenerative braking.
Hydrogen: hard to get infrastructure, not a solution for near future (hard to transport and build many stations everywhere)
Plug-in Hybrids: small 40+ mile range battery to recharge at night and motorcycle engine for recharging battery if emergency and when going 55+ mph

-you only need 10 horse power to get your car to 55 miles per hour, all that horse power in your car right now is for acceleration, electric engines are good at acceleration/low speeds/stop and go conditions
-gas cars are designed for one speed 55 miles per hour, inefficient at other speeds
-80% of drivers drive less than 40 miles per day