The word hybrid means some thing that's mixed together from two things. Generally it refers to plants or animals, which are bred from distinct genetically dissimilar parents. An example would be a mule, which is a hybrid of the horse along with a donkey. A new sort of vehicle that's on our roads are hybrid vehicles.

One vehicle is the Honda Insight that may get up to sixty eight miles per gallon on the freeway. The vehicle uses a tiny 1.0 liter, 3-cylinder engine with a thin electric motor.

Its primary power comes from the gasoline engine, however it uses the electrical motor when it is climbing hills or accelerating. The electrical motor doesn't need an extra power supply for charging. Its batteries are charged by regenerative braking. This suggests that energy from forward momentum is acquired in the course of braking. This energy is then utilized to charge the batteries.

Honda is also manufacturing its Civic sedan available as a hybrid that gets 51 mpg on the highway compared to gasoline-only model that gets 39 mpg on the highway.

One more hybrid on the road is the Toyota Pirus. This four-person vehicle gets 52 mpg. It uses advanced technologies to combine a little gas engine with an electric motor. At very low speeds, the vehicle operates on its electrical motor. Driving in city and at greater and freeway speeds, it changes to both gasoline motor and also the electric motor, whereas also recharges the battery.

Other automobile firms such as Ford have started selling their hybrid-electric vehicle known as Escape Sport Utility Vehicle and popular automaker DaimlerChrysler is working on a hybrid vehicle called Dodge Durango.