# Car People - Please explain this to me...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-please-explain-this-to-me/527310
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 2, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-please-explain-this-to-me/527310 "2010-02-02T00:30:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-please-explain-this-to-me/527310/1 "2010-02-02T00:30:05Z")
Electric, hybrid, gas powered - what the heck do they do differently? How do they run? How does the owner use them differently?
I know diddly about cars and how they run so please treat me like a child.
---
### Author:  [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-please-explain-this-to-me/527310/2 "2010-02-02T00:39:02Z")
The following articles do not dumb it down to the level of a child but they seem easy to understand. At least they have photos to help the explanation:
How Car Engines Work
> **[How Car Engines Work](https://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm)**
>
> It's the reason you can put the pedal to the metal and go from 0 to 60 in seconds. But to the uninitiated, an engine can look like a jumble of metal and wires.
How Electric Cars Work
> **[How Electric Cars Work](https://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car.htm)**
>
> Sales of electric cars keep soaring and the technology just keeps getting better. So how do electric cars work and just how green are they?
---
### Author:  [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-people-please-explain-this-to-me/527310/3 "2010-02-02T04:28:23Z")
I’m assuming you’re generally familiar with the concept (if not the working internals which the howstuffworks link explain) of a gasoline car. An electric car has an electric motor which runs off a battery which is charged from the regular old electric grid. Their range is typically far shorter than a gasoline car, so you have to plug it in typcially every day. There really aren’t any fully-electric passenger cars that are sold in any great number in the US however.
A hybrid car is the exact same as a regular gasoline car except that it has a clever system which recaptures the energy lost from braking and turns it into electricity which it stores in a battery. It also has an electric motor-- in some hybrids this is just a secondary “booster” motor which uses the energy stored from braking to supplement the normal gas drivetrain (which goes through a transmission which directly connects the engine to the drive wheels), or alternatively some are always driven by the electric motor and the gas engine strictly acts as a generator.
However, the important point is that 100% of the energy which propels a hybrid comes from the gasoline in its fuel tank and in terms of use and ownership they are exactly the same as a gasoline-only car, only a little more fuel efficient (especially in stop-and-go traffic).
Another technology which is not avaliable now but is likely on the horizon is the plug-in hybrid. These will be like the hybrids mentioned above which only use the gas engine as a generator, but they will also have an option to charge the batteries by plugging it in. This will allow you to drive a certain number of miles on electric power only, using no gasoline whatsoever until you deplete the intial charge.