Vehicle efficiency isn’t just about how efficient the engine is. Especially when considering hybrid vehicles, improvements in fuel economy and emissions come from innovations across the entire powertrain - including the transmission.
Hybrid transmissions allow combustion engines and electric motors to work together efficiently, helping reduce fuel consumption while maintaining performance.
Hybrid vehicles use electric motors alongside combustion engines to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Unlike combustion engines, electric motors can deliver full torque instantly from rest. This means they can efficiently assist the engine during acceleration, when fuel consumption is typically highest.
Hybrid systems also recover energy through regenerative braking. During braking or deceleration, the electric motor reverses the flow of energy and acts as a generator, converting rotational energy into electricity that can be stored in the battery. This recovered energy can then be reused to help power the vehicle.
Read more about what makes up a hybrid powertrain?
In a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle, the engine sends power through the transmission directly to the wheels. In a hybrid, the transmission must balance power from both the engine and the electric motor, depending on driving conditions.
In modern hybrid transmissions, such as many of those produced by Horse Powertrain, the transmission itself also houses the vehicle’s electric motors. In full hybrids, this will be in the form of a motor on the engine-facing side of the transmission that is used to provide extra power to the engine’s crankshaft, along with another motor at the output shaft of the transmission to provide electric traction for the wider vehicle.
Recovered energy from braking or deceleration can then be reused to help power a hybrid vehicle
Read more about what's the difference between HEV, PHEV and REEVs?
One of the biggest advantages of hybrid transmissions is that they allow vehicles to use smaller, more efficient engines.
Traditional engines are designed around peak power demands, even though drivers only use maximum power occasionally. Hybrid systems solve this by allowing the electric motor to provide additional power when needed.
Because electric motors deliver instant torque, they help compensate for the lower power output of smaller engines while improving overall fuel economy.
Recent innovations in electric motor technology are also helping improve hybrid efficiency further. These include Horse Powertrain’s amorphous motor, which reduces energy losses inside the transmission via its an industry-leading motor efficiency of 98.2%. This solution alone reduces full-vehicle fuel consumption by 1%.
Read more about why does thermal efficiency matter?
Advances like the amorphous motor show how improvements across the entire powertrain - including transmissions and electric motors - continue to play a major role in the future of hybrid vehicles. To read more about Horse Powertrain’s solutions, click here.