Things get rather more complicated when you get down to the details about hybrid cars. Hybrid cars are becoming more widely available and more popular.

With the facts about carbon emissions and climate change becoming widely accepted, most motor manufacturers are suddenly jumping on the hybrid car bandwagon. As the market expands there are more used hybrid cars available, as well as new models but older models may not always be so desirable for a number of reasons.

So here are some hybrid car facts to help you choose the best in motoring for yourself and your family - and the best for the planet, too, of course.

A hybrid car definition: Picture by June Traveler: the Toyota Prius hybrid's badge A hybrid car definition:

The word

The word hybrid is usually applied to plants and animals which have been cross-bred between species to produce something new. Plant breeders typically cross different plant varieties to produce better stock which incorporates some of the best of the different varieties used. Animals, too can be crossed to create new types (e.g Ligers and tygons - lion and tiger crosses). Some of these hybrids do occur naturally, others are deliberately created by human intervention.

Cars, of course, don't reproduce - (it just sometimes seems that way when you look at the roads!)

What has happened with hybrid cars has been a deliberate crossing of fuelling technology to get the best from fuels and to make the resultant cars more efficient.

A hybrid car definition:

Hybrid cars - a very short history

Hybrid cars are far from new. the first hybrid was built over a hundred years ago - the Mixte built by Porsche. The Mixte even won a car rally. It used a gasoline engine to power a generator which ran an electric motor.

Dual-fuel vehicles were not uncommon in the 1930s and 40s. Many buses and other heavy transport vehicles had systems which allowed them to run on petrol or diesel.

Most modern hybrids are HEVs - Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

The technology to power the hybrids of today really began in the 1970s. Victor Wouk is usually seen as the "Godfather" of the hybrid car after he developed a hybrid drive-train for a Buick. Progress stalled when the US EPA ditched the Federal Clean Car Incentive Program in the mid seventies.

The next technical innovation which was crucial to modern hybrid design was the regenerative braking system. Regenerative brakes harvest electrical energy from the process of braking. The energy is used to recharge the battery and reduce fuel consumption. David Arthurs developed the first one in the mid 1970s. He was able to reach 78mpg in a modified Opel GT sports car.

A hybrid car definition:

Hybrid cars now

Since the 1990s hybrid...

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