In the investigation to achieve a car that does not produce any type of polluting emissions, the electric car has been developed, which, however, still has problems of acceptance by users, mainly its high price compared to gasoline, and the need for several hours to recharge the electric batteries, in addition to the fact that this recharging must be carried out mainly at home, since there are not many points on public roads where it can be done, and they do not have a great autonomy of movement before having to recharge the drums.
While these issues are resolved, the brands are also offering the hybrid car, which combines both types of energy, gasoline and electricity, which are having more sales success. The car uses one or the other engine automatically, without the driver having to decide, depending on the type of driving that is carried out at any given time.
Thus, these cars, with the combustion engine, face long journeys without problems in which consumption can be reduced, and use the electric motor in the city, where the usual thing is to stop and start countless times and you have to drive at a speed short. Since hybrids are having a great acceptance and you may consider buying one of them, you will be interested in knowing how to calculate the consumption of a hybrid car, which we explain below.
What do you need to calculate the consumption of a hybrid car?
- A hybrid car
- Driving license
Instructions to calculate the consumption of a hybrid car
- Half consumption. From 2000 to 2013, a study was carried out, organized by the French electricity company EDF, the Toyota brand -pioneer in hybrid cars- and the city council of the city of Strasbourg, where 145 public charging points were installed. The results showed that consumption was 46% less than if they had used a gasoline car of the same size.
- hybrid types. There are several types of cars that combine the internal combustion engine and the electric motor. There is the one that uses the electric motor with a gasoline engine and the one that instead of the latter combines it with a diesel engine, which increases the reduction of fuel consumption. Although the consumption of a hybrid car is half that of a gasoline one, electricity also has a cost, but always much lower, and you also have the great advantage of considerably reducing polluting emissions. And you can also opt for a 100% electric car, although as we said at the beginning, its autonomy is not very great, although it must be taken into account that it works perfectly for most drivers and for most journeys, made in a radius not too large, since it is estimated that this route is about 60 kilometers on average.
- Recharge and save. Fossil fuel consumption in a hybrid car is also reduced, not only by using the electric motor, but by automatically charging with the KERS system, which takes advantage of the vehicle’s kinetic energy, that is, that of its forward movement and also the of the braking
- Calculate fuel consumption. As a hybrid car has two engines, to know how to calculate the fuel consumption of a hybrid car you will have to do the arithmetic of each of them. With the fuel you can do it by traveling a number of kilometers with a full tank. After finishing it, fill the tank again and you will know the liters that you load in the tank, the subtractions of those that suppose a full tank, and the resulting amount is divided by the liters spent. For example, your tank has a capacity of 50 liters, you travel 100 kilometers, and after going to the gas station, you need 5 liters to make it full again. That is, you spent 5 liters to travel 100 km. Multiply this amount by the cost of a liter of gasoline and you will have the cost of your car in gasoline for every 100 km.
- Calculate electricity consumption. Several studies indicate that the average cost of an automotive electric motor is about 16.5 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers, which will give you a guideline on what you will spend, taking into account that if you drive vigorously, and with many starts and stops, the cost will jump above 20 kvH per 100 km.
- Calculating the cost of consumption. Since you cannot always calculate the kilometers you travel with one or the other engine of your hybrid vehicle, you should take, at least, the average, with the sum of the expenses in gasoline or diesel and electricity and dividing by two. This way you will have a fairly reliable photograph of what the consumption of your hybrid is.
- Consumption of some well-known hybrids. In addition, when you go to buy a hybrid car, they will inform you of the precise cost for it to move. For example, the Toyota Prius, a pioneer brand in the manufacture of hybrid cars, has a combined consumption of just over 2 liters per 100 km. For its part, the Mercedes C350 spends 2.1 liters of gasoline per 100 km. But brands are continually entering the field of hybrid cars and more and more models of this combined technology are appearing.
Tips for calculating the consumption of a hybrid car
- One advantage that you can take advantage of when using a hybrid car is that it has a very quiet engine, to the point that they must have a system that emits a sound that notifies other drivers and pedestrians of their passage through streets and highways.
- You must bear in mind that the price of hybrid cars is higher than that of conventional ones, which means that the economic performance has a longer term, although consumption is reduced immediately.
