As previously mentioned, the most common type of hybrid vehicle is the hybrid electric vehicle. This vehicle will be the bulk of the rest of the article since it is the one that is most relevant to the current situation, but no article would be complete without discussing some of the other common types of hybrids that have been put onto the market.
The most common type of hybrid after the hybrid electric vehicle would have to be the hybrid fuel vehicle. This type of vehicle uses two distinct types of fuel in order to power the engine that it has inside. Usually, this is gasoline and one other type of fuel, but you can tell the hybrid split based on the name that is given to the category.
When you see a term like hybrid electric vehicle used, you can infer that the hybrid structure going on is gasoline-electric because the other half after electricity is not specified. Gasoline is always assumed to be part of the mix unless otherwise specified as in the case of some of the newer electric-hydrogen vehicles that have been attempted.
Within the context of hybrid fuel vehicles (also sometimes referred to as “flex fuel” vehicles within the popular discourse), the most common one that is currently in use in North America would have to be the hybrid ethanol vehicle. This vehicle uses a combination of conventional gasoline derived from petroleum and E85 ethanol derived from corn to allow the engine to move the car forward. Refuelling requires less gasoline as a result and since the express purpose of E85 hybrids is to facilitate the reduction of gasoline consumption, this car is a very nice solution to what is currently a worldwide energy crisis.
That being said, the ethanol used in these cars in North America is not the most efficient type of ethanol that you can find on the market. Truthfully, the energy required to create corn ethanol removes almost all of the gain that you’d get from it, making corn ethanol a highly inefficient means of locomotion. However, ethanol can also be derived from sugar cane and other like crops in a way that allows you to gain a lot of energy from the reaction. This sugar ethanol can then be combined with gasoline in flex fuel technology to create the same automobiles that just happen to run in a far more efficient manner. Countries like Brazil that are able to grow large amounts of sugar cane have been able to parlay this advantage into energy independence, greatly increasing their worldwide political influence as a result.