Quote:
Originally Posted by TeeSter
After looking a bit I may have that terminology mixed up some. There certainly are two kinds in that there are ones like mine where the electric is sufficient to drive the wheels and ones where the electric only can ASSIST in driving the wheels, and you are right in that you can make a vehicle that does what you say.... That would be yet another class.
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Yes, you got the two terms backwards. A series hybrid is one in which the electric motor
alone directly drives the wheels, with the engine/generator supplying power to the motor. A parallel hybrid is one in which the engine always, or nearly always, directly drives the wheels, with an electric motor supplying additional motive force.
All Honda hybrids are parallel hybrids. All Toyota and Ford hybrids are primarily series hybrids, but with elements of parallel hybrids. I guess you'd call them hybrid hybrids.
Trains are pure series hybrids; the engine never drives the wheels. But in Toyotas and Fords, the engine can directly drive the wheels, but it doesn't most of the time as far as I understand.