As drivers we've all looked at pump fuel prices and wished for the perfect energy source - a fuel that is cheap, plentiful and environmentally transparent. I know that I've wished that water could burn. But alas, this is the real world, and it's pretty difficult from a technological standpoint to get something for nothing.

The hybrid automobile is the closest we have come to this.

It transforms the energy provided when the car is being braked or coasted (such as when the vehicle is going down hill) to electrical energy, which is stored in a unique set of electrical cells, known as a battery. How it does this is quite ingenious.

Conventional braking systems use friction material to stop or slow a vehicle down; the wasted energy dissipates in the form of heat. The hybrid also has these pads, but its drive train - as well as being coupled to an internal combustion engine - is connected to either a series of electric motors (one at each wheel) or a single large unit.

Freewheeling

These motors provide power when electricity is put across them, but when driven, i.e., when the car is freewheeling - they generate current. While in this mode, the motor will act as a deceleration force - the brake pedal actually switches the motor into and out of circuit. This is called regenerative braking. A conventional system is usually onboard as a fail-safe.

Toyota's Prius is the only hybrid that is currently being marketed locally - Sales and Marketing Manager Howard Foster has said that they expect to roll out their electro-mechanical wonder during the first quarter of the new year. But all Japanese manufacturers have at least one hybrid model in their line-up - which means that your friendly neighbourhood used-car dealer has access.

Adrian Levy, a maintenance technician (Engineering Control Systems) at Kingston Container Terminals ( KCT) has had a Toyota Prius bought from Tau-Sales - damaged - for the past 18 months. He fixed it himself and has suffered teething pains. However, it is on the road and to date has got 1066 km from 43 litres of fuel - which works out to an astounding 58 mpg.

Microcontrollers

The application of hybrid technology, however, is not easy. Microcontrollers had to be developed to switch the motive forces into and out of the drive train, and an internal combustion engine that can be started in less than a second - the equivalent of flipping a switch - had to be developed. But the savings are immense - some hybrids in service have shown that they can be good for 60 mpg - an efficiency that exists because sometimes the car drives on the electricity, and sometimes it will run on fuel.

Driving a hybrid is no different from driving any other auto - with the exception that on electric power, the car is eerily quiet. The controllers monitor battery charge and usage is primarily biased to the electric end of the equation. When battery voltage dips under a certain value, the engine starts - and while it is providing propulsion, it charges the batteries. City driving, with all its stop and go, is particularly good for charging - and this is precisely where the IC engine is less efficient. High power situations also mandate the use of the engine.

mario.james@gleanerjm