Does a hybrid vehicle use electricity or fuel first?
3 Answers
Hybrid vehicles use electricity first. The powertrain of a hybrid electric vehicle mainly consists of a control system, drive system, auxiliary power system, and battery pack. When the vehicle starts moving, the battery is fully charged, and its energy output can meet the vehicle's requirements, so the auxiliary power system does not need to operate. Here is additional information: Hybrid vehicles: Hybrid vehicles offer high fuel efficiency and superior driving performance. The engine of a hybrid vehicle uses fuel, but during startup and acceleration, the assistance of an electric motor helps reduce fuel consumption. Simply put, compared to a similarly sized conventional car, hybrid vehicles have lower fuel costs.
I've been driving a hybrid car for three years, and it mostly uses electricity at startup. If you gently press the accelerator and coast slowly, the system intelligently drives with electricity, making it as quiet as an electric car. When starting from a red light or crawling in traffic, the pure electric mode is particularly fuel-efficient. However, as soon as you press the accelerator deeper or the battery drops below the set value, the engine quietly kicks in. Once, when driving on a mountain road with sufficient battery, it climbed the slope in pure electric mode for over ten minutes! Actually, the computer is better at calculating than we are—it automatically switches based on road conditions, so we just need to drive. The energy flow animation on the dashboard is especially intuitive.
Hybrid vehicles utilize energy differently depending on driving conditions. During cold starts, 90% of models initially use the electric motor without engaging the combustion engine, eliminating idle noise and saving fuel. The gasoline engine only kicks in when speed reaches around 40 km/h or during hard acceleration for overtaking. From my observation, urban commuting relies 60% on electric power, while the engine becomes dominant on highways. The smartest feature is energy recovery during braking or downhill driving - I've even started using pure electric mode with AC recently, since a few brake applications can recharge the battery significantly.
