BATTERY MEETS ENGINE
Hybrid vehicles combine battery power with conventional engines. The mix of these technologies means that hybrid vehicles can be powered in three ways: by the battery, by the engine or by those two components working together. Most hybrid vehicles have a conventional engine and fuel tank alongside batteries, a generator and an electric motor. If you’re using pure battery power, the engine uses petrol or diesel to run in the background, charging the batteries and increasing the car’s range. And if you want to combine battery and engine power, vehicles can switch between the power sources and recover energy when you brake.
There are various kinds of hybrid vehicles, too. Parallel hybrids are the most common and use any of the three propulsion methods. Range-extender hybrids only use their engines to produce energy for the electric motor, and plug-in hybrids are either charged by the engine or by an external source, like a plug.