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A hybrid car is one that attempts to incorporate the strengths of both gasoline-fueled combustion engines and electric motors while eliminating many of the problems that plague cars that are only one or the other. For gasoline cars, these problems include noise, expensive fuel and polluting emissions. Battery-powered electric cars have always been held back by

Сshort battery life and the need to plug the car in to recharge it.

A hybrid car has a combustion engine and an electric motor that work together (either at the same time or separately, depending on the type of hybrid). A hybrid car never needs to be plugged in for a recharge - whenever you step on the brakes, some of that energy is stored in the batteries. If the batteries get really low, the car can just run on gas until the

combustion engine recharges them.

Now, let's take a closer look at the nuts and bolts (and wires and bat-

gasoline engine. The car then performs a series of checks to determine if it

charged, if the operating temperaturesДare okay and if interior climate control settings are in the appropriate range (the air conditioning's maximum setting requires the gasoline engine to run). If everything checks out, the engine will then shut off, leaving the car running under electric-only power. This process only takes a second or two.

can switch to electric-only operation: It checks to see if the batteries are И

When you come to a stop in the Escape Hybrid, the gasoline engine actually shuts off. The car runs on electric-only while you're at a stoplight or waiting in line at the drive-thru. Ford put a lot of effort into making the gasoline engine on-off cycles as smooth and seamless as possible, but testers reported a discernible shudder in the vehicle when the engine went on or off. This is common to all hybrid cars.

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2. Electric Drive - As the Escape Hybrid accelerates from a stop, it does so under electric power. Electric motors are good at generating

car, the kinetic energy of the car's movement is dissipated as heat. In a hy-

brid car, the brakes take some of that energy and, using the electric motor as a generator, put power back into the batteries. This is why hybrids actually get better mileage in start/stop city driving than they do on open highways. Every red light recharges the batteries.

theиwork. It's most efficient at this speed range. But because the Escape Hybrid has a small, four-cylinder engine, it needs a little help when passing. When a speed boost is called for, the electric motor kicks in and adds its horsepower to that of the gasoline engine.

The Escape Hybrid (along with all other hybrid cars) doesn't have the usual transmission, with separate gears for the car to shift into and out of. Instead, the Escape uses an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (eCVT). On-board computers set the gearing to the optimum setting for fuel efficiency, resultingДin a 30 percent increase in efficiency over a conventional transmission, according to Ford engineers.

Escape Hybrid Specs

To improve efficiency in the gasoline engine itself, Ford used a fourcylinder Atkinson-cycle engine in the hybrid version of the Escape. Atkinson engines are more fuel efficient than standardИ-cycle engines (known as Otto-cycle engines) at the expense of horsepower.

The Escape Hybrid's 2.3-liter, aluminum, four-cylinder, dual overhead cam engine generates 133 horsepower at 6,000 rpm. The three-phase, permanent-magnet, synchronous electric motor adds 94 horsepower in the 3,000-5,000 rpm range. By itself, the gasoline engine can crank out 129 lbft of torque at 4,500 rpm. (For comparison, the four-cylinder engine in the non-hybrid Escape generates 153 hp at 5,800 rpm and 152 lb-ft of torque at 4,250 rpm.)

The AWD Escape Hybrid weighs in at 3,893 lbs (1,766 kg) -- the hybrid components add about 500 pounds (230 kg) to the Escape's weight. With a wheelbase of 103.1 inches (261.9 cm) and an 8-inch (20-cm)

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ground clearance, it's a relatively compact SUV. The Escape rides on Continental ContiTrac EcoPlus tires (spare included). The fuel tank holds 15 gallons.

As a first attempt to create a practical hybrid SUV, the Ford Escape Hybrid is an excellent piece of engineering. It's definitely better for the en- Сvironment and offers lower fuel costs than any other SUV on the market.

Although it isn't as environmentally friendly as a Toyota Prius, rated at 60 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway, it may be better for the planet in the long-term. By making a hybrid for the average family, which generally needs a bit of room to travel comfortably, Ford could be helping to put millions of hybrids in American garages within a decade.

и LEADбАACID BATTERIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Benefits of the Lead-Acid Battery

By any measure, lead-acid batteries and the environment are one of the environmental success stories of our lifetime. More than 98 percent of all battery lead and plastic is recycled, making the lead-acid battery the recycled leader of all consumer products.

The life cycle of a lead-acid battery follows a continuous, closed loop. The typical new lead-acid battery is made with 60 to 80 percent recycled lead and plastic. When a spent battery is collected and returned to a permitted recycler, its lead and plastic are reclaimed and directed to new battery manufacturing.

from the beginning of its service life,Дthrough distribution, collection of old product, recycling and reclamation, and back to another service life? What other industry takes responsibility to meet stringent environmental regulations that protect the environment while providing a critical recycling service?

Lead-acid battery safety efforts by the battery industry have led to the adoption of battery recycling laws in 38 states while five others have

disposal bans. What other industry works so hard to steward its product И

Air Filtration, Clean Water, Clean Air, Work Practices, Fugitive

Emissions

More than 80 percent of lead produced in the United States is used in lead-acid batteries. The battery industry takes pride in its advanced technology and common sense practices that dramatically reduce lead emissions from manufacturing and recycling facilities.

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The battery industry is regulated by local, state, and federal agencies, which inspect manufacturing and recycling plants to verify that the companies are meeting standards.

When taken together, all of these practices add up to a very responsible effort on the part of lead-acid battery manufacturers and recyclers to Сkeep even small amounts of lead out of the environment. Together, the ef-

forts make a measureable difference.

и with their capacitiesбАranging from 1 kilowatt to hundreds of megawatts.

THYRISTOR DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEM

Among the various power converters available today, thyristor converters and electric drives have become widely used in various industries,

But as a piece of equipment to be controlled, thyristor converters are fairly challenging, requiring precise execution of different control responses at specific times. Synchronizing such devices with power supplies with alternating current of questionable quality and stability is particularly difficult. Moreover, such equipment necessitates swift alerts to, and appropriate reactions to, emergency situations to protect the converter's power unit from going offline.

The developers of the SU-M1 system elected to address this chal-

together with ISO 9001-certified reliability.ДIn addition, this controller's processor was compatible with the x86-series processors widely used in PCs, giving access to a broad range of software, simplifying the development and deployment of applications.

lenge using a control system based on a powerful, yet relatively inexpensive controller with advanced software. The best controller for the job was Octagon Systems' 6040-series MicroPC, which met the necessary func-

tional requirements, proved capable of controlling the equipment, had a

discrete input-output port and digital/analog and analog/digital converters И

The SU-M1's developer set out to create a system that would be

highly reliable, that would be easy to use, that would provide the necessary data to control the equipment and identify and deal with extraordinary situations through a centralized diagnostics system, and that could work with new and legacy equipment. To meet these goals, the developers used hardware only where it could not be replaced with software, such as the 90-watt power supply, sensors, isolators, RS-422 signal interfaces and pulse shaper for the control of the thyristors. The SU-M1 can also be bun-

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dled with a 4x20 LCD display and a KP-2-16 keyboard from Octagon Systems or analog devices. The system can also be connected to a local network through an RS-485/422 port, or to a broader system through a standard radio modem.

The system's software is written in C and is multitasking in strict re- Сal-time conditions. The program is compiled for DOS and, after it is con-

verted to protected mode, uses only the file-related functions. The software provides users with a flexible set of controllable parameters for controlling the system such that identically configured SU-M1 systems controlling dif-

files.

ferentиequipment will differ one from another only in their initial parameter

Currently a less expensive version of the system is being developed using the PC/104 modular controllers from Advantech. This version will

not be capableбАof operating in the extreme conditions that the MicroPC allows for, but the software and functionality will be nearly the same.

FIRST GM HYBRID TRANSIT BUSES GO TO WORK

New technology offers large gains in fuel economy and reduced emissions.

By Mike Meredith of MSN autos

beneath even more people: hybrid transitДbuses.

Passenger cars with hybrid gas-electric drive systems have been gen-

erating a tremendous amount of publicity lately, due to the technology's fuel savings and reduced emissions. Sales of hybrid passenger vehicles remain strong, with demand still growing. Amid this increasing interest

comes a new product from General Motors that will put hybrid technology И

As part of its wide range of fuel-efficient advanced technologies, General Motors has developed a commercial parallel hybrid system that combines a diesel engine with electric motors to power transit buses.

On May 27th, 2004, at Seahawks Stadium in Seattle, GM officially

delivered the first of 235 hybrid buses—the largest order to date—to Metro Transit of King County, Washington. Metro Transit ordered 213 hybrid buses and Sound Transit Regional Express ordered 22 more.

The first buses were put into service on June 5, 2004, with all 235 buses destined for King County expected to be in service by the end of the year.

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