An electric car is powered only by one or more electric motors. The electric motor can get its power from a number of sources. An electric train or bus gets its power from an overhead line or from a special 3ed rail.

A battery powered electric car has the electricity stored in batteries. This vehicle will get all of its power from the batteries. The batteries must be charged from an outlet. You can even have fuel cells that make power for an otherwise electric vehicle.

But there is a special kind of hybrid where the engine does not drive the wheels. Instead it only makes electricity for the electric motor (with any extra amount going to batteries). This is a series hybrid. The proposed Volt is to be a series hybrid. You could plug in this vehicle for some power or you can get all the power from the fuel. But the wheels are driven only by electric motors.

Far more common just now are parallel hybrids. These vehicles have both an electric motor and another (usually gasoline) engine but here both of these engines can drive the wheels. Sometimes they do it together. The Toyota Prius is a parallel hybrid. An older Prius had no option to charge the batteries from an outlet. All the power comes from the fuel.

Hybrids have less of a battery capacity than a pure electric vehicle. Until recently you could not plug in a hybrid to charge its batteries. They had to get all their power from the engine. Now some are "plug in hybrids" In these vehicles you can charge batteries before you start out using an outlet.

A hybrid tries to take advantage of both engines strong points. An electric motor pulls well and is good in stop and go traffic. The gasoline engine is not so efficient but is currently better at going a long distance. A pure electric car will be pollution free in operation, more efficient and cheaper to operate but may not go as far on a complete charge.

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Environmental Impacts

Air Quality:
Hybrid vehicles offer a great improvement on the air quality emissions for vehicles that are powered by gasoline. According to The Green Car Club, hybrids reduce health-threatening tailpipe emissions by 90% and evaporative emissions to almost zero. (The Green Car Club) The hybrid vehicle does contribute to green house emissions just at a reduced rate because the fuel that powers the hybrid comes from a petroleum based fuel.

Fuel Production:
The pollution associated with the production of fuel for hybrids is the same as the pollution created in the production of fuel for gasoline vehicles because they both use gasoline. The pollution is somewhat reduced for a hybrid vehicle because the vehicle has greater fuel efficiency. There is considerable pollution related to the production of gasoline. Gasoline contains MTBE which is a known cancer causing agent and can cause birth defects if a pregnant mother is exposed to it. Petroleum extraction and transportation has led to some of the worst ecological disasters that the planet has seen. When the Exxon-Valdez capsized it released millions of gallons of petroleum onto pristine coastlines. The environmental damage was monumental. The destruction of the rainforest is rarely associated with petroleum extraction. However the discovery of vast oil reserves and the subsequent drilling of these reserves in Venezuela and other Latin American countries near the equator, has led to the destruction of tropical rainforests.

Vehicle Production Pollution:
The production process for the hybrid vehicle is very different than the production process of a gasoline vehicle. There are similarities especially in regards to the production of the gasoline powered engine. Thus the production of the gasoline powered engine in the hybrid is similar to that of a gasoline powered vehicle however the addition of the electric engine increases the environmental impact of the production of the hybrid vehicle. The greatest environmental impact comes from the pollution caused by the elaborate battery system that powers the electric engine. The battery pollution is substantial because the creation of the batteries requires destructive mining to produce the batteries and the caustic substances that power the batteries must later be disposed of. The caustic substances that power the batteries are very poisonous and when released into the environment leech into the waterways and poison groundwater.

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Hybrid vechiles
1) Toyota Prius
2) Honda Civic Hybrid
3) Honda Insight
4) Ford Fusion Hybrid -[2010 car of the year]
5) Mercury Milan Hybrid

This link may help also:
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/plugin.pdf

Thanks!

Yup there sure is. There’s also a federal income tax credit for it.

If no why?

If yes would you be willing to pay extra to rent a hybrid vehicle?

If no why?

If yes, how much more would you be willing to spend per day on a hybrid?

If you could save money on gas by renting a hybrid vehicle would you re-consider renting a hybrid?

yes and yes i would..