We have worked for many years building a worldwide infrastructure to recycle bottles, cans, newspapers, cars - almost anything - except energy. If the very existence of our society rests on energy, why do we make no effort to recycle it? Hybrids are, in fact, the only drive system that allows the kinetic energy of motion to be recycled for future reuse.
How does this work, and why is it so important? As basic physics tells us, energy is required to get a vehicle moving. In conventional vehicles, that energy comes from petroleum, which is converted into kinetic energy by a combustion engine. However, in order for the vehicle to stop, it must then dump this kinetic energy as waste heat generated by the brakes - an extravagant process that repeats itself over and over countless times, day in, day out. And this waste of energy is acceptable?
With a hybrid, the car’s motion is instead slowed by the braking action of its electric motor as it converts the kinetic energy into electrical energy, which is stored in the battery. When the car starts back up, this stored energy is converted by the electric motor back to kinetic energy. This process repeats itself over and over, subject only to the efficiency of the recycling process. Aggressively applied, this means we could reduce our transportation energy consumption by 75 percent just by recycling.
All vehicles should therefore be required to have the capability to recycle energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency should institute a rating system that measures each vehicle’s effectiveness in doing it. This would be similar to the current mileage rating system, but much more useful.
| 
| 