Why is it so important to drive a hybrid vehicle, given various negative factors?

Question

Negative factors:Much more expensive than comparable gas-powered vehicle(gas or diesel ONLY), even with tax breaks for hybrids, still uses some gas, and electricity it uses comes from the power grid, which is fueled by..you guessed it. Also, these vehicles lack sufficient power in many instances for accident avoidance, and are so quiet that many pedestrians cannot hear them coming. Given all of this information, what is so great about these cars?

Answer 1

you answered your own question.  status.  even with the tax break, lots of ppl can't afford one.

it has been reported that cars of the 80s or 90s were much more fuel efficient than the hybrids of today, but that detroit lobbied congress for tghe weakening the fuel efficiency requirements imposed after the gas embargo of the 70s because they couldn't meet them.

that's a bit  how the asian car makers got a leg up in car sales in this country in the first place.

Answer 2

Makes liberals "feel" good driving an ugly slow vehicle, its their "sacrifice" for the planet.

Answer 3

Its not.

Answer 4

We are witnessing a transition period first time in history,

that will have an impact on the dependancy of fossil fuels.

This change that we are witnessing is not a change in the pocket book at all.

Fact over the period of the invention of the first car the price at the pump has done one thing.

collected too much interest for what the fuel is worth driving up the price since the automotive revolution started.

The same people who drive up fuel prices are the same people inventing hybrids to shift interest from one pocket to the next.

Yet the consumer still pays the same or more but in the end can take a breath of air so he thinks..

Fact the earth is becoming more and more popullated this

creates more consumers using more fossil fuels.which creates a bigger demand for the substance.

Who pays in the end? The poor people who cant afford a hybrid....

How much do you want to bet the dependancy for oil that gets shifted to a dependancy of a hybrid and auto makers

become just as filthy as the oil tycoons by simply charging 5

times what the cars worth in the end.

What about special interest groups regulating manufacturing

and retailing autos for too much to make up for all the lost jobs of vehicles people can afford?

Not to mention the technology is definetly going to clean out America as the profits of the sales of the vehicles wont recirculate, it may go back over seas just like the middle east,

but now Japan.

Not only that but perhaps the auto industry could easily gain ground in the fossil fuel industry but that wont happen.

I promise you in the end when everyone goes hybrid the gas

will reach 25.00 a gallon so the world will go around.

We are just puppets...

Answer 5

Because they use less gas and thus produce lower greenhouse gas emissions.  They also reduce our dependency on foreign oil.  Basically they're just like regular cars, but more efficient.

And no, current hybrids do not plug into the power grid.  Plug-in hybrids have not yet been developed.

And no, they do not have any problem with accident avoidance.  And they're not silent - most people have no problem hearing them coming.  And being quiet is a positive, not a negative!

Answer 6

Exactly - Hybrids are good in stop and go traffic.  Open highway driving these cars get less mpg than a good economy car.

Answer 7

The grid is much cleaner, even in it's present state, than burning gasoline or diesel.

Hybrids are more expensive mostly because of lack of economy of scale.  If they were mass produced at the level that conventional gas cars are, they would probably be no more expensive.

And tax breaks for hybrids and all  forms of alternative energy are miniscule, compared with the estimated  $80 billion annual tax credits and subsidies that the oil industry enjoys.

Which is only about 10% of the estimated total hidden costs of oil, at $800 billion annually.

Not to mention wars in the mideast over oil, past present and future.   If you paid those hidden costs at the pump now, gas would be about $12 a gallon. We are paying it either way.

What we really need to mass produce are plug in hybrids, or PHEVs.   They are about 40% more fuel efficient than existing hybrids.  And you could recharge the batteries overnight for about $1.

That $1 would buy you 30-60 miles of driving every day.  Even with electricity generated by coal, PHEVs are better than driving gasoline cars.

The pollution would be centralized at the power plant, instead of spewing it everywere you drive.

PHEVs, at today's gasoline prices, would save money over the life of the car.  At $1.75/gallon they would be an even trade off, over the life of the car.  At $3.50/gallon  you would be saving money.

Detroit needs to move to these PHEVs.

A website called Plug in Partners is an advocacy group for promoting plug ins.

http://www.pluginpartners.org/

They have a petition you can sign as well.

When the grid is cleaner, full electric cars will make total sense.  The range should improve dramatically before too long.  Phoenix Motorcars already has an EV pickup with 130 mile range and a battery that can be charged in 10 minutes.

They have a 440volt charger that will do that.  The onboard plug in charger takes 6 hours.  Theoretically, there could be charging stations, like we now have filling stations, for the 10 minute charge.

Answer 8

You're wrong on just about every point.

1.  The expense of the hybrid hardware is about $2000; most of the rest is the mandatory feature package.  If you think it's much more than that, you're comparing dissimilar vehicles; for instance, the Prius is much closer to the Camry than the Corolla in size and features.

2.  "Still uses some gas".  Who says that you have to go to zero to have an improvement?  Talk about bogus objections.

3.  Current hybrids USE NO GRID POWER.  Of course, this contradicts objection #2; with grid power, you COULD get rid of gas (at least for shorter trips).

4.  Power is adequate.  The Prius gets 0-60 in 9.8 seconds, which is faster than my VW diesel.  Under 12 seconds used to be performance-car territory!

5.  Pedestrians ought to be using their eyes.  When people are not crossing streets, the reduced noise makes the environs more pleasant and less stressful.

A poster at CleanMPG found about $6000 difference between the base 4-cylinder and base hybrid Camrys.  If the 4-cyl gets 25 MPG and the hybrid gets 40 MPG over 200,000 miles, that's 3000 gallons of fuel saved.  Even without tax credits, that pays for itself at even $3/gallon; with gas heading for $4-$5/gallon soon, it's a no-brainer!

Edit:  I hear you about the problems with careless drivers in too-big vehicles.  You're part of the SUV arms race, trading off fuel economy to get safety and visibility.  But is this good for the country?  SUVs aren't any safer overall than passenger cars; what they get in safety in collisions with others, they lose in fatal rollovers.  For this illusory safety we get real personal costs in money, and real national costs in greater dependence on OPEC and Hugo Chavez.

You don't need huge amounts of power to haul stuff, even lots of stuff.  I've hauled a 3+ ton vehicle up 5% mountain grades at 65 MPH, using a whole 95 horsepower (calculated by engine speed and rated torque).  That's why I don't believe the stuff about a Prius not being able to go up such grades; they only need about 50 HP to keep the same speed, and they have plenty more than that.  The only thing that needs lots of power is getting off the line fast.  We might like that, but is it really necessary?  Do people need it for more than posturing?

The people who bought big trucks since 9/11/2001 will regret it when gas prices head north of $4/gallon this summer.  Maybe they'll be car-pooling and driving their beaters instead.  When that happens, I hope you can get back to your econo-car; I get 31-32 in every day driving in my diesel, and 38-40 highway.  I'm looking at something that gets 130 MPG.

Best of luck to you.  With all the people out there denying reality, we all need it.

Answer 9

doesn't matter I could never afford one anyway. I would much rather have a car with the same little 70 to 100 horsepower engine without the extra weight & expense of the secondary drive system & batterys. I could probably afford 1 of them & would accept the 80 mph top speed and lack of acceleration in exchange for  45 to 60 mpg like the diesel beetle gets & no need to spend 10 or 20 thousand for replacement batterys every 3 or 4 years.

Answer 10

We should have a hybrid Rio and everyone could afford one, or a smart for two perhaps?

Prius does run on grid power, but most never do, because when one charges the battery in the driveway one does not get to use braking to charge up the battery as much. They are less efficient on long runs... the hybrid feature is little used.

But they do give good results in moderately hilly terrain even on the highway.

If we appropriately charge for our dwindling supply of fossil fuels, it does become much more economical to operate the vehicle that uses less fuel, but even more so to use it less km/year.

I use an Accent, and consume less fuel than many who drive a Prius, not because my car is more efficient, just because I drive so little.

Our power grid is dirty. Not based on our base load, but based on the fuel used to provide every extra kWh. Even if I happen to be using power coming from a nuclear plant, because I am using that power it is not available to supply someone that is on a coal plant.

But really, few hybrids are drawing much from the grid yet.

Most who drive a Prius will remark that they are very quick away from a stoplight. They really are a good city car, but they are only satisfactory on a high speed highway. Power to avoid accidents however is highly overrated. People with power to burn are not in fewer accidents. People in underpowered cars learn to adjust their driving, and are not in a lot of accidents that they would not be in with more power.

The only 2 points you make that are important as  negatives,  price and silence. We should not allow blind people to drive them. Perhaps we should have a buzzer run when they move on electric alone.