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starting a hybrid car is as easy as
pushing a button but what's inside is
anything but simple in the rear of the
car beneath the fast-food wrappers
another junk in your trunk is a roughly
100 pound rechargeable battery pack
comprised of many smaller nickel metal
hydride or lithium ion batteries similar
to those in your cell phone current from
the battery is directed to the electric
motor which contains around a kilogram
of neodymium a rare-earth metal used to
make the world's strongest commercially
available permanent magnets the motor
can produce high torque at low rpms it
isn't enough to reveal a Higgs boson
particle but it can generate around 80
horsepower at around 40 miles per hour
the internal combustion engine kicks in
providing additional power and extending
the hybrids range to hundreds of miles
without refueling internal combustion
engines run on good old gasoline which
packs nearly ten times more energy than
TNT but they also release carbon dioxide
benzene and other fun toxins into the
atmosphere
the hybrid special sauce is a software
guided drivetrain with planetary gears
that finds the optimal balance of power
between the gas engine and the electric
motor
engaging both the driver needs to go off
for middle-end it all comes full circle
when you hit the brakes the car's
kinetic energy goes into rotating the
motor which effectively becomes a
generator this not only slows the
vehicle but also produces electricity to
recharge the battery
it's called regenerative braking and is
perhaps the only known benefit of stop
and go traffic
other than getting to listen to all of
your wired podcasts
[Music]
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