Voted Best Answer
Jan 03, 2020 - 08:56 PM
Hi there
The term "Hybrid" implies that a car is propelled by a mixture of combustion engine and electric power, both of which send their outputs into the drivetrain. Don't confuse this with "range extenders" such as the BMW i3 REx, which employs a petrol engine solely as a generator to charge its batteries - its propulsion is still purely electric.
Integrating the electric drive into the system can happen in many different ways, but is usually done by putting the electric motor in parallel with the combustion engine. This setup allows the car to move on electric power only, petrol only, or a blend of the two. Energy to recharge the batteries is generated by the petrol engine as well as harvested from the brake system upon deceleration. Some hybrids (generally those with heavier, high-capacity batteries) can also be plugged into your home power point, allowing them to recharge fully overnight, which will give extra electric-only range.
As for reliability, they seem to pose very few hassles as they age - at least, they're not significantly more problematic than normal combustion-only drivetrains. The batteries usually have warranties for 6 years or more, and the drive units (motors) themselves appear to be robust enough to outlast the cars that carry them. The only downside is that many hybrids employ some variation of CVT, which often leads to extra engine noise as the (generally detuned) petrol engines have to work hard to maintain freeway speeds.
Hope this helps!
The AskAutoTrader Team
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