If most power plants use fossil fuels, why are hybrid electric cars more beneficial for the environment?

Answer 1

I think your question has been answered pretty well, but just to add a little more info:

1. Hybrid-electrics are more efficient than conventional gas-powered cars because:

a. Electric motors and gas engines are best suited for different conditions. Electric motors are most efficient at low rpms and heavy loads. Gas engines are most efficient at higher rpms and light loads. Hybrids choos the best one for current conditions.

b. Regenerative braking allows energy that would normally be wasted wearing out your brake pads to instead be converted to electricity, stored, and used to accelerate the car when the light turns green. This saves a lot of energy.

2. There is some debate as to whether hybrid-electrics are more environmentally friendly when all factors are accounted for:

a. Hybrids get phenomenal gas mileage in cities, but folks have discovered that their highway performance was overestimated. They don't get much better highway mileage than a small 4-cylinder, and not as much as a small diesel (diesel VW Rabbits used to get about 50 mpg).

b. The batteries used in hybrids are, I think, normally lithium-ions or nickel-metal-hydrides. The guts of these batteries are very toxic and not easily recycleable (yet) like lead-acid batteries. I've also heard that the manufacture of these batteries is very polluting. I'm sure people are working on this, though.

2. Power generation stations burn fossil fuels to generate steam, which in turn powers steam turbines. The burning process is MUCH more efficient than a piston-driven engine. Piston engines are horribly inefficient. If I remember correctly from my high school chemistry class, gas engines of that day made use of only about 20-30% of the chemical energy in gasoline. I'm sure they're better now, but I would bet that they're still below 50%.

Answer 2

Well because they have a smaller carbon footprint either way.

I'm going to go and talk about buses here, because I've seen the new tech for hybrid buses recently, and don't know enough about modern hybrid cars yet.

So a hybrid bus has a diesel engine I believe, and that powers the batteries, which in turn power the bus. This may sound like a pointless middle man but it works well. The engine runs at maximum efficiency when needed, no picking up and slowing down like when it's actually moving the bus. It generates power and puts it into the batteries. So it's like a generator but super efficient. This is how it reduces the emissions of the bus, and lowers it's need for gas, because it's not powering the bus directly and inefficiently, it's working at maximum efficiency to power the bus indirectly.

But though I don't know much about hybrid cars I do know a bit about electric cars.

Well an electric car is still better because it costs less in fossil fuels from the power plant to charge an electric car, and it's not putting out it's own pollution, so it's cleaner. I suppose it's like the hybrid bus, the power plant is working at maximum efficiency all the time, a gas engine does not, so that efficiency going into your car means the most energy with the least waste, whereas with a gas engine you have variable energy and a lot of waste as a result.

So it's all about efficiency.

But yes, it is better if you live somewhere with a lot of wind, solar or nuclear power in the grid.

Oh and some places allow you to buy power from a green dealer, like http://www.bullfrogpower.ca So if you had that for providing energy for your home, and you used it to power your car, you'd have basically the lowest carbon footprint possible in the developed world I think.

Answer 3

Well as many people have already answered, hybrid cars don't plug into the electric system.

However, electric cars do plug into the electric grid and are far more beneficial to the environment because their engines are so efficient. Additionally, a significant portion of power plants are not coal-burning, particularly in California.

Answer 4

If I remember correctly, a power plant is about 70% - 80% efficient, where a gasoline engine is about 60% - 70% efficient at converting the energy contained in gasoline to motion. I think a hybrid car is just smoke and mirrors, aside from the regenerative braking, but a plug in hybrid would be a different story, because a user would be able to use the more efficient power from a power plant instead of from the gasoline engine.

Answer 5

Present day hybrid cars generate their own electric power from moving and stopping and do not use the power fro fossil fueled power plants.

Answer 6

The benefit of a Hybrid is the duel power of fuel and electric generated passively by braking and stored to improve over all gas mileage while reducing emissions. It may not be perfect but it's a good start!

Answer 7

Hybrids are not plug-in electrics - they charge their own batteries using the gas engine. Plug-ins DO run off power plants, but because electric motors are so much more efficient than gas ones, they result in overall energy savings of about 50%.

Answer 8

Hybrid cars have the ability to capture energy that ordinary cars waste when braking or going downhill. This energy is stored in the battery and used when power is needed. Using that stored energy saves the gasoline engine from having to produce that power, so it uses less fuel. Less fuel means less carbon dioxide emission in addition to less fossil fuel used.

Answer 9

almost all of the hybrid cars on the road today generate their own electricity through a generator on the gasoline engine and they harness electricity from the friction caused while braking. since they do not need to be plugged in to house they do not rely on power plants.

Answer 10

A power plant is more efficient than a car engine:

Power plants and cars both contribute about 30% of the total CO2 each; but, being less efficient, cars produce more CO2 per unit of work produced therefore fewer cars switched to alternative fuel make a bigger difference.