Coupled with all of these traumas is the fact that when you sit in traffic, your car is still running, and it continues to burn gas. On hot summer days, even if you're inside an air-conditioned car, you can almost feel the heat coming from all of the exhaust pipes surrounding you on the road. So as it turns out, as you sit there in traffic, you're not just stressing about being stuck in one place, but technically you're throwing money out the window, too. A car with its engine simply running, either sitting still or creeping along ever so slowly, is one of the least efficient ways to burn gas which of course, it's not just bad for your wallet; it negatively affects the regional air quality by creating air pollution and contributing to global warming. Carbon emissions released by your engine as a result of the process of internal combustion -- the burning of fossil fuels to create power -- float up into the atmosphere, creating smog and increasing local temperatures.
With many drivers' minds is the increasing costs of oil production and consumption these days, people are looking for alternatives to the conventional gasoline engine. Many have switched to CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) which in the recent years has only become hard to get, it is not available on all the days and when it is available there are long queues to get it which in its own self is a torture and stress. Other way to combat the issue of frequently stopping, starting and standing still is a technology that can seamlessly switch your engine on and off depending on how your vehicle is operating. An idle-stop system, also commonly known as a start-stop system, is essentially what makes up today's increasingly popular so-called mild hybrids.
Although "full" hybrid technology is understandably receiving lots of buzz in recent years, especially now that when our government has offered duty rebate on full hybrid vehicles and two of the major players are offering brand new Honda CRZ and Toyota Prius in their lineup of hybrid vehicles, mild hybrids are also getting some attention lately. Despite the name, mild hybrids aren't technically hybrid cars. They're actually conventional vehicles that use internal combustion to turn gasoline into energy and rotational motion, propelling a vehicle forward. There is no electric motor in a mild hybrid to move the car, and although there's a battery, it serves a different purpose than a battery does in a full hybrid.
The battery in a mild hybrid is still very important, but its main purpose is as a part of the idle-stop system that shuts off the gasoline engine when a mild hybrid is at rest, coasting or slowing down. For instance, a stop at a red light at an intersection will cause the engine to cut off. When the car is idle, no gas will burn inside the engine. Once the light turns green and the driver applies pressure to the gas pedal, the engine should switch back on seamlessly, as though it hadn't been turned off at all.
There are essentially three main parts involved in an idle-stop system: the gasoline engine, an electric starter/generator and a battery. The transfer of energy works in that order, both forwards and backwards, it just depends on what state the car is in. When the car's engine is on and you're just about to brake, stop-start systems use regenerative braking, where rotational energy from the wheels turns the electric generator and creates electricity. The generator sends electricity to the battery where it can be stored for later use. When the driver applies the brakes, however, the generator shuts off the gasoline engine. Pressing the accelerator pedal starts the engine once again by taking the stored energy from the battery and running it through an electric starter.
Although the savings you'll get on fuel in a mild hybrid won't really compare to those of a full hybrid car, stop-start technology is still a promising step forward in making conventional cars much more fuel-efficient. This is an especially important step, since most fuel economy problems stem from idling and the constant stop and go nature of city driving. The technology has actually been around for a while, but we'll a look at some notable newer cars in Pakistan using idle-stop systems and the improvements that are underway for the existing technology.
In Pakistan we get a few Japanese used cars with optional ECO-Idle aka mild hybrid technology; the most common cars available locally are; Daihatsu Move, Daihatsu Mira E:S, Suzuki Wagon R, Suzuki Alto and very few cars of Toyota Vitz and Toyota Passo. All the 660cc cars are available between the price range between Rs.900,000/- to 1,200,000/- depending on condition and options however since this feature is very uncommon in Vitz & Passo thus I was not able to get the price idea of a Mild Hybrid Vitz or Passo.
OA
Technical Source http://www.howstuffworks.com
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