Hybrid cars -The best solution to keep a check for global warming

We humans generally have two voices inside.One is the Good voice another one is the Devil's voice. The devil's voice always rules many of our peolple thats why we start exploring new things to increase our comfort level at the cost of the environment around us. Im a no way exception in what has been said above.But at times the good voice comes out which is making me to write some posts like this.About the new hybrid cars coming up.
Let me first explain what exactly a hybrid car means.It is the car having two types of engines.One engine runs in a normal gasoline and the other engine is powered by any of the eco-friendly fuels like hydrogen,solar and even batteries.

Now one company, AFS Trinity Power of Bellevue, Wash., says there is no need to wait for advanced batteries to be invented — that a successful plug-in hybrid can be assembled from components that are already available. The company, which specializes in energy storage devices, is displaying a running prototype at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens Sunday for press previews and runs through Jan. 27.

The prototype is based on a Saturn Vue Green Line, a hybrid crossover that General Motors builds using a low-cost belt-alternator system for its electric drive. With extensive modifications, AFS Trinity’s Vue can run 40 miles on electricity alone, the company says, drawing its power from a combination of lithium-ion batteries and scaled-up versions of common electrical devices called capacitors.

With a second electric drive system added to the standard gas-electric setup of a Vue Green Line, it would not be a stretch to call AFS Trinity’s creation a hybrid hybrid.

G.M., which is not involved in the AFS Trinity project, will also make announcements in Detroit about Vue hybrids on the way, including a version that uses the two-mode hybrid system recently introduced on large S.U.V.’s. Saturn promises an update on the production of its own plug-in version of the Vue as well.

Typically, hybrids exploit the synergies of electricity and internal combustion by using only an electric motor at low speeds; the gas engine kicks in as speed increases, and both are used when maximum output is called for. AFS Trinity, on the other hand, took a purist position. In its system, the gasoline engine is not started until the batteries run down, an approach that Edward W. Furia, chairman and chief executive of the company, calls an “extreme hybrid.”

By designing the system to operate that way, the AFS Trinity Vue can achieve the equivalent of 150 miles a gallon. But technical issues arise because it carries only a few batteries, putting a big strain on each one during acceleration — a serious problem for an automaker that must provide a long-term warranty. An electric-only vehicle would avoid the problem by carrying four or five times as many batteries, though that would greatly increase the vehicle’s cost.

In fact, the problem in a hybrid is not only how much energy the batteries hold, a quality called energy density, but how fast they can deliver it, called power density. The difference between energy density and power density is like the difference between a wine jug and a peanut butter jar — the containers may have the same capacity, but the size of their openings differ greatly.

Battery choices for a given application are based on the task. For a hybrid car, which needs a deep reserve of energy to go long distances, one of the most promising types is lithium ion, because it offers favorable energy density, carrying many watt-hours in each pound. That is what AFS Trinity chose for the Vue, with about 16 kilowatt-hours of usable capacity.