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The portfolio of the automotive market appears more and more low-emission and zero-emission propulsions in vehicles. This is the result of measures taken to limit or even eliminate the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere generated by vehicles. The article covers issues related to energy conversion in automotive drive systems currently offered by automotive manufacturers. Standard, hybrid, hybrid plug-in, electric and fuel cells drive system were analyzed. Attention was drawn to the chain of energy transformations related to each of the analyzed drive systems. The efficiency of the presented vehicle drive systems was analyzed. General conclusions were formulated regarding the method of analyzing energy changes related to the operation of automotive propulsion systems. The article reviews selected author's own works on hybrid and hydrogen propulsions.

The study was conducted to determine whether the efficiency of energy conversion into growth can be used as an indicator for the determination of the optimal gamma irradiation dosage for mutation breeding. To meet this objective, embryo growth, shoot growth, root growth, mobilization of food reserves, respiration and energy conversion were studied in gamma-irradiated wheat Triticum monococcum L. cultivar Einkorn kernels. Kernels were exposed to 50, 150, 250 and 350 Gy and germinated. Kernels were collected 12 h after onset of imbibition and then every 12 h until 168 h. Irradiated seed demonstrated retardation in all parameters, which increased as the gamma irradiation dosage increased. For the most, dosage and time, as well as dosage by time interaction were highly significant. Root growth appeared to be the most sensitive to gamma irradiation, followed by shoot growth, mobilization of food reserves and efficiency of energy conversion. Full recovery of the efficiency of energy conversion took place at 50 Gy, with an increase in inefficiency with an increase in dosage. The point where full recovery of efficiency of energy conversion into growth gives way to incomplete recovery (100 Gy) is in line with the suggested dosages for practical mutation breeding in Triticum monococcum L. by the FAO/IAEA and is therefore an ideal indicator for predicting the dosage that will be optimal for plant mutation breeding.