Hybrid Engines

Hybrid Engine Performance

While hybrids can reach relatively high speeds, it’s good acceleration that some models lack.

When most people buy a hybrid car, they usually do so with the understanding that there’s going to be some kind of compromise between power and eco-friendly driving. The reason hybrid vehicles have become such a buzz topic and a go-to model for the auto industry recently is because of that compromise. As concerns increase over global warming, caused in part by carbon emissions resulting from vehicle fuel consumption, the power provided by a gasoline engine coupled with the fuel-saving qualities of an electric motor seem like the best possible combination.

But are fuel-efficient vehicles significantly slower than regular cars? To see if hybrid cars crawl on the road rather than zip along, we have to look into hybrid engine performance. Generally speaking, the engine in a hybrid car is almost always smaller than the engine in a comparable non-hybrid car. Smaller engines usually equal less horsepower and less torque. To get good fuel efficiency, hybrids operate from a standing start using only the electric motor, which typically provides much less horsepower and torque than a gasoline-powered engine. These two systems work together, however, to ensure hybrids can save fuel in the city and drive at faster speeds on the highway or even climb steep hills.

In short, hybrid cars won’t be maxing out at 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour) on the highway, endangering  other drivers on the road, but they won’t go quite as fast as most regular cars, either. While many all-electric vehicles have significantly lower top speeds and some are even a little bit unstable on the highway, hybrid cars get enough power from the gasoline engine to go as fast as 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour). The real matter for hybrids is in acceleration. Since the smaller electric motors that most automakers use don’t produce much horsepower, a relatively fast hybrid car can go from zero to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in about six seconds, while a more typical hybrid car’s zero to 60 time hovers around the 10 second mark. For some people, that’s a little too slow.