01-11-2009, 10:10 PM
Furthermore, perhaps one of the biggest reasons for using the electric motor is that it allows you to use a smaller engine that runs at optimum speed. Most car engines are sized for acceleration. But once the car has accelerated to cruising speeds, it only uses a small percentage of it's overall power capability. All engines have an optimum running speed and size for a given power requirement. Perhaps others can fill in with more detail as my answer is very general.