Amidst the changing of cogs to sprockets and do-hickeys to whatchamacallits, consumers trying to make sense of changing automotive terminology are left with the blank stares of a 12-year old in advanced calculus.
The auto industry is lurching toward a more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly future. Internal combustion isn't going away anytime soon. But as hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles become more common, so too will the vocabulary used to describe their inner workings.
We here at Autopia have compiled the beginning of a one-stop-shop to quell your technical jargon dismay. What will happen with the archaic terms of the past? What new cryptic scientific slang shall we expect and what will it mean? Read on to find out...
Out with the old:
1. Gas pedal The traditional gas-burning engine has a gas pedal, of course, as do diesels in the common vernacular. Electric cars don't have a "gas" pedal, as there is no gas in the vehicle. Therefore, it has an accelerator pedal. But what of hybrids? Well, if you drive a car like the Toyota Prius, you'll always have an accelerator pedal, but only sometimes will you have a gas pedal. Potato, pahtahto -- lets call the whole thing off. It's an accelerator.
2. Throttle (a): to decrease the flow of (as steam or fuel to an engine) by a valve. (b): b: to regulate and especially to reduce the speed of (as an engine) by such means. (c): a term that has come to be known as a discrete part of the engine rather than the action defined in (a) and (b).
The throttle, commonly in the form of a butterfly valve used to restrict and control the air flow of an internal combustion engine, has long been used -- incorrectly, we might add - in reference to diesels, which technically do not have a throttle. Why not bring EVs to the party? Get used to it.
3. MPG Ah yes, miles per gallon, the standard measure of fuel efficiency and favorite buzz-word amongst the masses. Expect it to appear in different forms such as miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) to compare and contrast an internal combustion engine's performance against that of a new-fangled EV or hybrid. Will it be an exact comparison? No, but it will be close enough. If you think "close enough" won't cut it, you better start comparing gasoline powered vehicles to similar diesels on a basis of energy consumed per mile. There is as much energy in 0.88 gallons of diesel as in one gallon of gasoline.
4. Transmission We here at Autopia are grumbling at the idea of transmissions becoming obsolete. Imagine a future without the chuckle-inducing comment of having blown or serviced your "tranny." We'll have to find some other sophomoric jokes. As the mechanical link between the power source -- i.e. the engine -- and the drive train, the transmission provides variable mechanical advantage dependant on engine speed and speed of travel. In series hybrid vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and EVs like the Tesla Roadster, transmissions are obsolete because the mechanical link between power source and drive train has been replaced by wires.
5. Tachometer From the sloth-like spinnings of diesel engines to the overachieving screaming engines on four-cylinder sportbikes, tachometers have provide a visual cue to change gears. Sometimes more of a vanity item and for ease of universal manufacture on automatic transmission cars, we have grown accustomed to seeing them in everything from sports cars to minivans. Enter the rogue EVs and hybrids. With no direct link between power-plant rotational speed (if extant) and vehicle speed plus a lack of a transmission in entirety, watch the tach get replaced by duty-cycle indicators, battery usage meters and other boring dials and bar graphs.
In with the new:
1. Lithium-ion battery What you need to know: "Lithium ion" refers to a type of battery widely used in consumer electronics and under rapid development for EV and hybrid vehicles. They offer excellent energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect and minimal charge loss when not in use. Common chemistries found under the "lithium ion" family include lithium-cobalt, lithium-manganese and lithium-polymer.
What you don't care about: See Wikipedia
2. Continuous vs. peak power What is it, and what's the difference? Electric vehicles manufacturers are offering specifications that sound like they refer to the world's largest hard drive. Let's cut to the chase and keep it simple.
Imagine you own a 400 horsepower car that can do 0-60 in four seconds flat. You 'd use all that power when romping on the accelerator in a no-holds-barred drag race, but you would only use a fraction of it on a first date. With electric motors, peak power is whats available for momentary surges in power for your drag race, while continuous power is what you've to on tap for your first date. Both can vary depending on the power controller system and the available battery charge.
If that wasn't confusing enough, comparing EV power output to that of a traditional gas vehicle is not quite as simple as you would hope. Take the Tesla Roadster. It claims 50 kilowatts (67 hp) continuous and 185 kW (248 hp) peak power with a 0-60 time in 3.7 seconds. That matches the sprint time of a Porsche 911 Turbo putting down 480 horsepower. Why the difference? Torque. Electric motors produce gobs off it, and it's all available the moment the motor starts spinning.
3. Kilowatt-hour vs. kilowatt A kilowatt-hour is a measure of energy commonly used with home electricity consumption at the equivalent of 3.6 megajoules. An average American household consumes about 30 kW-hrs per day, which is also the approximate amount of energy stored in one standard U.S. gallon of gasoline. A kilowatt is a measure of power at the equivalent of 1.34 horsepower. Another statistic, manufactured by us here at Autopia, finds the average American (including this author) often gets these terms mixed up.
4. Parallel vs. series hybrid These terms have so far been relegated to the geeks, but as the industry progresses and hybrids of all stripes become more common, you'll want to know the difference. They refer to how the gasoline engine and electric motor are configured. A parallel hybrid like the Toyota Prius uses a traditional transmission to couple the gasoline engine and electric motor to the wheels. Such vehicles use internal combustion and electricity to drive the wheels. A series hybrid like the Chevrolet Volt does away with the transmission because the engine drives a generator that takes over when the battery runs down. The electric motor is the only thing driving the wheels. Many see the series hybrid as the "true" hybrid configuration minimizing energy loss due to wasteful idle engine spinning friction.
5. Drive-by-wire Everybody knows the standard controls on cars: steering, acceleration, gear-changing and braking. Everything else is ancillary. At first, these functions were performed mechanically with cables, push-rods and gears. Then came hydraulics, which increased reliability and efficiency. It's easy to see why it has become industry standard.
Automakers are moving toward the next standard -- electronic control. They're taking most, if not all, driver inputs and sending them to the various systems via electric signals sent to electro-mechanical devices. It may sound a little scary, but don't worry. The technology has been used for decades in commercial and military aircraft, and it is common in the top tiers of auto racing. If it's good enough for U.S. Navy pilots and Michael Schumacher, it's good enough for you.
What about...? Are we missing something? Yes, we're missing a lot of terms. That's where you come in. Use the Reddit Widget to add your suggestions and vote everyone else's suggestions up or down.
Main Photo: Flickr / Quasimondo
OK -- your turn. Tell us what we missed, and vote for your fave.
OK -- your turn. Tell us what we missed and vote for your fave.
While you can submit as many terms as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.
