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The gasoline engine only turns a generator, which charges the battery and sends electricity to two electric traction motors that drive the car.
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As they do, hybrid and plug-in hybrid componentry batteries, power electronics, traction motors, plugs, onboard charge inverters and thermal plumbing required to keep everything happy will gradually be integrated into light-vehicle powertrains to backfill the horsepower gap.
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The Lexus' whirligig is familiar from the Toyota Camry and Avalon hybrids: a lean-burning Atkinson-cycle, 2.5-liter in-line four-cylinder (156 hp) coupled with two electric motors, one a 141-hp traction motor, the other a starter-generator.
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