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As the first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle, its the one everyone knows.
Hybrid electric vehicles, like the Prius, are what fancy people call parallel hybrids.
These kinds of hybrids have quite small batteries, typically under 5kWh.
Some carmakers, were looking at you Lexus, call these self-charging hybrids.
This ismisleading and kind of wrong, read why here.
The upside of this kind of hybrid is that its very approachable.
I mean this in the sense that its not a huge departure from conventional motoring.
These kinds of hybrid are driven and fueled exactly like a regular combustion vehicle.
The fact that these hybrids are fueled with gasoline like a regular vehicle helps toallay range anxiety.
The main difference, is that plug-in hybrid vehicles have bigger batteries and can be charged from mains electricity.
Mild hybrids also use tiny low-power batteries in comparison to conventional all-electric vehicles usually its a 48V system.
The batteries are charged using energy reclaimed from braking.
In a mild hybrid a starter generator is used to support the engine directly.
In other words, running the air conditioning reduces economy and increases emissions.
Although, the reduction is slight when compare to plug-in hybrids.
SHIFTis brought to you by Polestar.
Its time to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility.
That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance.Find out how.
Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
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