Gasoline Engine
The gasoline engine is a type of internal combustion engine. The gasoline engine has 4 basic strokes including the intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust. Gasoline gets mixed with air easily, so it can produce combustion with just a little spark. As a result, the gasoline engine has a spark plug to ignite the air and fuel mixture. Here's how the four strokes of the gasoline engine operate.
1. Intake
The intake valve opens and the air and fuel mixture is sucked into the cylinder.
2. Compression
The intake valve closes and the air and fuel mixture is compressed by a piston.
3. Combustion
In this stage, the air and fuel mixture explodes and the power created by the explosion causes the piston to move down.
4. Exhaust
The burned gases in the cylinder are removed through a valve.
Diesel Engine
The operation of a diesel engine is similar to the one of a gasoline engine, but they are slightly different in how they ignite the air and fuel mixture. In gasoline engines, the air and fuel are pre-mixed before being sucked into the cylinder. On the other hand, diesel engines use fuel injectors to spray fuel into the cylinder. As diesel engines have no spark plug, they need to have higher compression ratios to ensure that the air and fuel mixture is compressed enough to make an ignition.
Electric and Hybrid vehicle
Electric vehicles don't have an internal combustion engine, but instead, they have an electric motor, as they run on electricity. A battery pack inside the vehicle stores the electrical energy and powers the electric motor. The battery pack is charged by plugging into a charging station.
In contrast, hybrid vehicles use both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. So, the two different systems work in harmony to power the vehicles. The batteries in hybrid cars don't need to be plugged in as its internal combustion engine charges them.