How does insight hybrid work

Remote Engine Start. Side Underbody Spoiler. Rear Underbody Spoiler. All-Season Floor Mats. Illuminated Door Sill Trim. Touring shown in Radiant Red Metallic.

Touring shown in Lunar Silver Metallic. The 1. High-voltage batteries are major powertrain components that play an important role in powering the vehicle. Touring shown with Black Leather. The steering wheel-mounted deceleration selectors allow you total control over regenerative braking, a technology that allows you to recoup energy back to the battery.

We built the Insight for aerodynamic efficiency, with grille and engine designs that reduce wind loss as well as a front bumper that limits wake. To streamline airflow beneath the car, we used a flat underfloor design and strakes designed to reduce wake. Powerful Performance. Two-Motor Hybrid System. Deceleration Selectors. Underside Efficiency.

Optimized Airflow. Keep your devices charged with the USB port or the volt power outlet, conveniently accessible for the driver and front passenger. See details here. EX shown. All 8 Photos for Gallery. Function Not Available. Full Screen is not supported on this browser version. You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen. View All 5 Photos 1 of 5. All 5 Photos for Gallery. First Look: Acura Integra prototype isn't surprising, but exciting.

What happens if you put the wrong fuel in your car? Thanks for signing up! Notice for the Postmedia Network This website uses cookies to personalize your content including ads , and allows us to analyze our traffic.

Choose Trim. My Picks. You already have 5 vehicles in your picks. Edit your picks to remove vehicles if you want to add different ones. Edit My Picks. Here's a layout of all the pieces:. Its engine only runs at an efficient speed and load - In order to reduce emissions, the Prius can accelerate to a speed of about 15 mph 24 kph before switching on the gasoline engine.

The engine only starts once the vehicle has passed a certain speed. And once the engine starts, it operates in a narrow speed band. It uses a unique power split device - Gasoline engines can be tuned to run most efficiently in certain speed and load ranges.

The power split device on the Prius, which we'll talk about in a minute, allows the engine to stay in its most efficient load and speed range most of the time. Toyota designed the 1. Keeping the maximum speed of the engine low allows for the use of lighter components that improve efficiency.

The electric motor on the Prius is rated at 67 horsepower from 1, to 1, rpm. It produces pound-feet of torque from 0 to 1, rpm, which is more than enough to get the car going without the aid of the gasoline engine. The power split device is the heart of the Toyota Prius. This is a clever gearbox that hooks the gasoline engine, generator and electric motor together.

It allows the car to operate like a parallel hybrid -- the electric motor can power the car by itself, the gas engine can power the car by itself or they can power the car together. The power split device also allows the car to operate like a series hybrid -- the gasoline engine can operate independently of the vehicle speed, charging the batteries or providing power to the wheels as needed. It also acts as a continuously variable transmission CVT , eliminating the need for a manual or automatic transmission.

Finally, because the power split device allows the generator to start the engine, the car does not need a starter. The power split device is a planetary gear set below. The electric motor is connected to the ring gear of the gear set. It is also directly connected to the differential , which drives the wheels. So, whatever speed the electric motor and ring gear spin at determines the speed of the car.

The generator is connected to the sun gear of the gear set, and the engine is connected to the planet carrier. The speed of the ring gear depends on all three components, so they all have to work together at all times to control the output speed. When you accelerate, initially the electric motor and batteries provide all of the power. The ring gear of the power split device is connected to the electric motor, so it starts to spin with the motor. The planet carrier, which is connected to the engine, is stationary because the engine is not running.

Since the ring gear is spinning, the planets have to spin, which causes the sun gear and generator to spin. As the car accelerates, the generator spins at whatever speed it needs to in order for the engine to remain off.

You can see all of this below:. Once you reach about 40 mph 64 kph , the gasoline engine will turn on. The generator suddenly changes speed, causing the planet carrier to turn and start the engine. Once the engine is running, it settles into a constant speed while the generator varies its speed to match the output speed with the electric motor. If you are really accelerating hard, the motor will draw extra power from the batteries. Once you are up to freeway speed, the car will move under a combination of gas and electric power, with all of the electricity coming from the generator.

Like the Insight, the Prius never needs to be recharged; the onboard generator automatically maintains the proper level of charge in the batteries. Both the Honda and the Toyota have long warranties on their hybrid components. The motors and batteries in these cars typically don't require any maintenance over the life of the vehicle however, if you do have to replace the batteries after the warranty expires, it will likely cost you several thousand dollars.

The engine doesn't require any more maintenance than the one in any other car, and because both hybrids have regenerative braking, the brake pads may even last a little longer than those in most cars. Achieving hybrid power is certainly more complex than using straight gasoline power or straight electric power.

In the next section, we'll examine why hybrid technology is so desirable, both for consumers and for car makers. You might wonder why anyone would build such a complicated machine when most people are perfectly happy with their gasoline-powered cars.

The reason is twofold: to reduce tailpipe emissions and to improve mileage. These goals are actually tightly interwoven. Let's take the example of the California emissions standards, which dictate how much of each type of pollution a car is allowed to emit in California.

For example, the low emissions vehicle LEV standard allows 3. The key thing here is that the amount of pollution allowed does not depend on the mileage your car gets. But a car that burns twice as much gas to go a mile will generate approximately twice as much pollution. That pollution will have to be removed by the emissions control equipment on the car. So decreasing the fuel consumption of the car is one of the surest ways to decrease emissions.

Carbon dioxide CO2 is another type of pollution a car produces. The U. Since it is not regulated, a car has no devices for removing CO2 from the exhaust. A car that burns twice as much gas adds twice as much CO2 to the atmosphere.

Auto makers in the United States have another strong incentive to improve mileage. The current standards require that the average mileage of all the new cars sold by an auto maker should be This means that if an auto maker sells one hybrid car that gets 60 mpg 3. You can actually take steps to drive your car in ways that increase its gas mileage. In the next section, we'll look at some tips for increasing the efficiency of your hybrid or just gas-powered car.

A driver's desire for quick acceleration causes our cars to be much less efficient than they could be. You may have noticed that a car with a less powerful engine gets better gas mileage than an identical car with a more powerful engine. Just look at the window stickers on new cars at a dealership for a city and highway mpg comparison.

The amazing thing is that most of what we require a car to do uses only a small percentage of its horsepower. When you are driving along the freeway at 60 mph You can get the best mileage from a hybrid car by using the same kind of driving habits that give you better mileage in your gasoline-engine car:.

For more on hybrid cars and hybrid SUVs, more on fuel-efficient vehicles, and more great car information, check out:. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. This mpg demerit is most likely due to the Touring's larger inch wheels. On our mph highway fuel-economy test, our Insight averaged 46 mpg, a stat backed up by road-trip fuel-economy logs and a number that matches that of the Toyota Prius in the same test.

We should also point out that in our mph test, the Insight scored 1 mpg better than its EPA highway number. Despite the engine noise inside, we did approve of the Insight's simple interior design. As in the latest Hondas, there's a tried-and-true volume knob and no-nonsense climate controls. One editor went so far as to deem the occasionally slow and frustrating infotainment system "passable. True to Honda's reputation, the Insight proved to be very reliable. It required just three scheduled stops, with the interval and details of what services required determined by the onboard computer.

The requested stops came every 11,or-so miles, the most expensive and comprehensive of which was the third and final one. That stop requires an oil change but not the oil filter , a tire rotation, a lengthy list of checks, a new cabin air filter, and calls for the engine air filter to be replaced. If that "not the filter" bit caused pause, good, because it does to us as well. Honda says its filters are good for two oil-change cycles. Long-term cars don't get hall passes and the Insight is no exception.

When spring rolled around, we discovered that the air conditioning didn't work. Tailgating in the name of efficiency was costly, too. The final bit of damage came when a raccoon wandered into our path and took out the bumper cover and miscellaneous trim pieces. Perhaps the raccoon missed seeing the anonymous Insight.

Judged by sales, the Prius is the gold standard of hybrid cars. Toyota sells three of them for every Insight that Honda sends into the world. No matter how easy it is to live with, or how well-mannered and pleasing it is to drive, the Insight falls behind the Prius year after year. More people should take notice. It got our attention, even though we occasionally mistook it for a Civic.

As we approach the 40,mile endpoint of our time with the Honda Insight , we can't help thinking of that moment in Forrest Gump when the title character stops running across the country and, with complete disregard for his followers keeping pace over the past umpteen months, decides to go home. Now, we're not saying the Insight is dull or simple, but just that it goes about its own business with a stoic competence that we find endearing.

It gets to work and does its job without a single complaint. It is a commuter savant. Regardless of whether or not it is fun to drive, that no-nonsense approach makes the Insight our kind of car. It has even won over numerous staffers who initially discarded the Insight as a weeniemobile.

Early gripes about seat comfort, mainly that there wasn't enough lumbar support or too much lumber support, have ceased. Maybe we finally broke in the Insight's seatback, like a nice pair of leather hiking boots. We're rarely going to reach for the Insight over our long-term Honda Civic Type R , especially since we've fitted the latter with snazzy inch BBS wheels for the winter, but the zero-drama experience and efficiency of the Insight appeals to the logical adult inside of us. Beyond gasoline, scheduled service, and windshield-washer solvent, the Insight hasn't needed anything and continues to affirm the adage that Hondas are reliable rides.

We've had the car for 11 months, and it hasn't so much as thrown a check engine light damage caused by us notwithstanding. The low-fuel warning light comes on with some frequency, but that is only because the fuel tank is so tiny. Staffers own lawnmowers with fuel capacities that rival the Insight's Those lawnmowers don't average 41 mpg, although Honda does make a lawnmower with a higher top speed than the Insight.

Because we are so close to the end of our time with the Insight, we opted not to swap the car onto its winter tires, a set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS80s, because of the simple fact that we'll soon test the car again at the 40K-mile mark and we don't want to swap tires back and forth.

If the Insight didn't have decent all-season rubber from the start, we'd certainly make the change to winters. Being one of the only cars in our fleet currently not on winter tires has made it a little more popular around lunchtime and on our commutes, if only because all-season tires generate a bit less road noise than most winter tires.

Since the Insight's last update, it has braved Chicago-area highways a couple of times on the way to Wisconsin and Minnesota, jaunted up to Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula as well as parts of its Upper Peninsula, and ventured to Nashville.