Under the hood of most cars you ’ll find one or more pulley - driven belts . Called engine belts ( or , if there ’s only one of them , aserpentine belt ) , these whang take kinetic vigour from theengineand expend it to generate the electricity that runs the cable car ’s electrically powered accessories . These include the alternator , the air conditioner , the power direction and the water ticker . If one of these belts should break , the railcar becomes very nearly undriveable .
It ’s potential , though , that there is n’t a belt under the hood of your cable car , especially if you own a 2010 - or - later Toyota Prius . The Prius uses electric motors to power the cable car ’s electrically powered systems and these motors control quite severally of the engine . Chances are that there ’ll be more cars using such a beltless locomotive system in the hereafter . In fact , beltless engines have quite a few advantages over the older form .
What are these advantages ? We ’ll look at five of them over the next few page .
5: Better Fuel Economy
If you have aPrius , one of the cause you bought it is plausibly the fuel economic system . The EPA render the 2012 Prius a 50 miles per Imperial gallon ( 21.3 kilometers per liter ) combine rating for metropolis and highway driving , making it one of the most fuel - efficient cars on the market . The intercrossed powertrain is a major understanding for this , but it ’s not the only intellect . The aerodynamic design assist a lot too . And so does the beltless engine . By admit power - generation duties off from the internal combustion locomotive engine , reducing the energy inefficiencies that auto engineers cite to as epenthetic loss , a beltless locomotive engine consumes less gas . And because a unbelted engine loses less energy to friction than the old variety , it generate power more efficiently .
4: Less Maintenance
speculate an engine knock breaks while you ’re off on a leisurely drive through the land – or even while you ’re contend your way through bumper - to - bumper traffic on the road to work . Yourair conditionerwill stop refrigerating the car ’s interior , your steering will become sluggish and your coolant system will stop working . Not a expert situation and it happens fairly often . Engine belts are a weak link in the mountain chain of a car ’s engine . The flexible material that belts are made from are subject to fatigue and have a limited lifetime , often more modified than the lifespan of the locomotive engine itself . Belts more than a few years sure-enough can simply snap – and they always seem to do it when it ’s as inconvenient as potential . Even if you search for cracks in the knock ( a sign of wear ) and have the belts replaced in progression you ’ll take to put your car in the shop class and blast out a hefty clump of modification before you may aim it again . There are some adjustments that the proprietor can make to a snakelike belt using the belt tensioner , but most people would be happy if they never had to fool around with it .
The belt in unbelted engines never become mischievously line up or snap off because , well , they do n’t exist . That makes unbelted engine more honest than conventionalenginesand reliability is a feature of speech in a car that we can all get behind .
3: Quieter Operation
Anybody who ’s ever had anelectric carsneak up behind them knows that electrical motors run a lot more quietly than home combustion engine ( ICEs ) . But with a beltless engine , even the Methedrine in a intercrossed vehicle like thePriuscan melt down more softly . That ’s because there ’s no more squealing or buzzing from the belt . If you ’d prefer that your railroad car unravel as silently as possible so that you may listen to the radio receiver or just contemplate the scene in peace , beltless engines are a major pace toward genuinely silent running . Now if only the car would drive itself , you could sit down back and learn a book of account in peace .
2: Less Polluting
The other reasonableness people buy Priuses ( or is that Prii ? ) is that they ’re more environmentally favorable than the intermediate car . This is largely because of their more effective use of fuel . With less gun being burned , few noxious , pollutingemissionsare created . And the beltless railway locomotive ( along with the intercrossed cause train ) is one of the reasons that less gas is burn . Beltless engines do n’t waste fuel on anything but making the auto move . you could think of environmental friendliness as the snotty-nosed side of fuel efficiency . A beltless engine provides both more miles per gallon and less damage to the world around you . That ’s definitely a profits - win site .
1: Run the AC without Starting the Engine
If you have a Prius you know that it come with a button on the central fob that can plough on the airwave conditioner from across a parking lot , so that the inside of the car will be cool by the time you wax into the number one wood ’s seat . The reason that most cars do n’t have such a button is that they ca n’t . You have to take off theenginebefore the aviation compressor will work . It may seem like a small thing , but it ’s the beltless railway locomotive and the galvanising motors that control accouterment that make it possible . You also get to keep yourpower steeringand aviation conditioning if the engine fail , which is yet another benefit of unbelted railway locomotive .
With a list of welfare like that , it ’s backbreaking to believe that unbelted engine wo n’t catch on fairly promptly . After all , machine designer are always look for ways to make cars more fuel efficient and dependable . Who fuck ? In five year maybe all automobile engine will be unbelted .
