Hybrid Cars

[Barquentine]

My wife is looking for a new car and considering a hybrid. At the showroom they explained the battery gets charged up when the car is braking. Knowing very little about these things I had always just assumed the car charges itself from the rotating wheels. I know that electricity is generated by having coils of magnetic wires spinning inside a turbine creating an electric current. The spin is generated by steam from coal, or by steam from nuclear energy, or from water in hydroelectric power or from the spinning caused by wind in wind-turbines. Please, please tell me someone that the free energy created by already spinning wheels is being used by mini-turbines in each axle to send electricity back to the battery? It seems such an obvious idea that's how I imagined they do it.

[barry1010]

No, sorry to disappoint. Does this help? https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/tips-advice/353643/regenerative-braking-what-it-and-how-does-it-work

[roopower]

My goodness, I don't like the sound of that. It looks like it takes a lot of getting used to.

[barry1010]

I don't fancy it either, roo. I will stick with my banger as long as possible and stay with petrol or diesel as long as it is financially feasible.
If I had to choose between all electric and hybrid I'd choose all electric. Can't really see the point of hybrid unless it was driven more than 150 miles a day regularly. As far as I know hybrid cars aren't exempt from congestion charges or vehicle tax.

[bhg481]

The wheels are only spinning because fuel has been converted to energy in the first place. In a conventional car when you brake the kinetic energy of the car is converted into heat and wasted. In a hybrid the kinetic energy is converted into electricity and put in the battery.

[bhg481]

Perhaps you should read this before you buy a hybrid car:

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1556002/Mercedes-Benz-car-new-battery-price-Auto-Trader-Knighton-Leicester

A battery for a fully-electric car will be much more expensive.
Our local bus company bought a couple of dozen hybrid buses about 10 years ago; they've converted them all to methane fuel as the batteries have packed-up.

[gingejbee]

Well, I have a petrol car that came with stop-start engine and regenerative braking, which I understand most stop-start cars have.