MEL140 Term Paper Hybrid Vehicles Human civilization since time immemorial has sought for ways towards progress. In our search for resources to serve the purpose, we set our hands on resources derived from plant and animal matter. The liquid form of such resources, the crude oil, can be fractionally distilled to provide commercially useful products like gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lubrication oil, petroleum gases, wax and petroleum jelly. We engineered gasoline or diesel driven motor vehicles for faster transport. In our blind race towards ‘progress’, we actually missed a big link in the cycle of nature. The rate at which we were using the resources was far more than the rate at which nature produces them. We have been releasing combustion products of these fuels into the atmosphere at a rate greater than that at which nature absorbs them back into its cycle. Consequently, as we are all aware of it now, the depletion of our natural resources and the polluting of our atmosphere are occurring at a rate never imagined. The need to switch over from conventional fuels to renewable or non-conventional resources was felt by engineers and environmentalists all over the planet and efforts were made to develop technologies that utilized renewable resources. The automobile industry, which played a major role in the deterioration, was researched too. A major breakthrough in the field of “Hybrid Vehicles” was made in 2000 when Toyota Prius with a fuel economy of 22 kilometers per liter hit the market as the first ever Hybrid Car for sale. Here, we shall discuss the basic hybrid technologies at work and their implementation in today’s automobile sector. The electric power to the battery pack can be provided by directly plugging the car to a power socket. Variations include on-the-go production of electric power from hydrogen fuel cells as well as solar panel supplements. Variations are also observed in the internal combustion engines which are now designed to burn...