How to drive your hybrid car efficiently

 

By Chad Lückhoff

We look at the various ways that you can extract the most range from your hybrid vehicle.

With the rising prices of petrol and the absence of fast and effective public transport, more and more South Africans are turning to hybrid cars as a form of transport.

Hybrid cars use a combination of electric and petrol power to generate the energy needed to propel the car. There are a variety of different systems employed by various manufacturers, but the core principle stays the same.

These hybrid cars can be extremely light on fuel when used correctly but will offer little to no benefit if one doesn't know how to use it in a way that makes the most of the systems installed.

Two factors contribute to the efficient application of a hybrid vehicle, driving style  and the system's functionality. Here's how you can drive your hybrid car more efficiently.

Driving Style:

These points don't only work for hybrid cars, but any fuel-powered vehicle , petrol or diesel. The goal is to waste as little energy, kinetic or momentum, as possible.

Accelerate Smoothly

Accelerating aggressively from a standstill uses a lot of energy. The powertrain has to work extra hard to get the vehicle up to the speed that you are requesting from it, resulting in unnecessary waste. This will deplete your battery reserves and may activate the petrol engine, depending on the type of hybrid system at work.

In most hybrid systems, slow and steady acceleration will only use the battery power to propel the car and will not use any petrol. Harsher acceleration will result in the petrol engine being used to get the car going.

Steady Braking

Many hybrid cars are fitted with regenerative braking systems that use the energy lost in the braking process to charge up the batteries, giving you additional range. Hard and fast braking is a waste of energy and only requires additional resource in order to get back up to speed. Steady braking allows to a gradual deceleration and as little waste as is possible. The longer you are braking for, the longer the batteries can recharge.

Maintain a Constant Speed

Any fluctuation in speed uses energy, either to build up speed or as a loss of momentum energy. Therefore, it is important to try and maintain as constant a speed as possible. You can achieve this by using the cruise control on long open roads or just being cautious with the accelerator in traffic situations.

Drive Slower

Part of conserving energy is the reduction of counteracting forces. Drag is the force that counters forward momentum with the most notable instance being wind resistance. Wind resistance increases exponentially the faster you travel so reducing your speed will result in less wind resistance and less energy required to maintain your speed. Lowering your speed from 120km/h to 110km/h can have massive effects on fuel and energy consumption.

Anticipate Traffic

Being aware of the surrounding traffic and the patterns that are being followed will make maintaining a constant speed easier. Watching ahead and spotting the backup in traffic or a red light will allow you to gently reduce your speed without having to brake (so less wasted energy) and less energy will be required to get back up to speed again. Watching which lanes are moving at a steady pace (albeit slower than the fast lane) will allow you to maintain a constant, steady speed with minimal change.

Hybrid Systems:

Not all hybrid systems are the same, however many will offer you a more economical driving mode to help reduce energy loss. This is most commonly called Eco Mode and should be used as much as possible to help reduce wastage.

Some hybrid systems will allow for a full EV (Electric Vehicle) mode where the car will only use battery power and only use the petrol engine when more aggressive acceleration is required.

Toyota / Lexus systems  don't always offer an option to switch to a full EV mode and will switch between electric, petrol assisted and petrol only power on their own, depending on the conditions and the throttle inputs.

Here, steady acceleration and constant speed cruising will only use electrical power and not petrol, extending your overall range. The petrol engine will kick in from time to time to charge up the batteries and save electrical charge.

The BMW systems  offer the choice and in most cases will allow for travel up to 120km/h on electrical power alone. This is their Eco mode setting.

Their Auto setting will see the car behave in a similar fashion to the Toyota systems  where electrical power will be used in cruising and under gentle acceleration, only activating the petrol engine when more power is required (such as aggressive starts or harder acceleration).

BMW's  Sport mode will activate the petrol engine which will propel the vehicle and charge the batteries at the same time. While this uses petrol, it can be used to extend the overall range of the car by switching between the Eco and Sport modes manually. Charging the batteries and then using that charge that was generated to power the electric motor/s.