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Hybrid Cars

by

wellwisher

Hybrid Cars

The hybrid car\’s time has come. The high (and getting higher) gas prices are forcing Americans to rethink their usage of their cars and trucks as well as to start seriously considering purchasing a hybrid.

More and more of us are opting for carpooling and using public transportation rather than driving our personal vehicles to and from our jobs. We are consolidating trips for our household errands. We are delaying or even canceling family vacations. We are making these changes because the price of gasoline is so high that we simply have no choice.

The problem is, we don\’t LIKE being forced to change our driving habits. The majority of us realize that our reliance on foreign oil is not a good thing and that America needs to find a way to produce our own fuel. There are many of us that are seriously concerned about what burning all this fossil fuel is doing ecologically to the earth. We are worrying about price AND pollution. Enter the hybrid car!

Hybrid cars, such as the Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, and a number of others, rely on both a gasoline-powered engine and an electric motor (via powerful batteries that recharge as you drive). The result has been much better gas mileage (the Insight exceeds 60 miles per gallon in the city) and much fewer emissions. The difference is particularly evident while driving in the city — the electric motor does most of the work during city driving, thus using less gasoline, while the gasoline engine provides more power during highway driving.

There are some drawbacks to hybrid cars. They are generally smaller vehicles, made with lighter-weight parts, and you will likely have to sacrifice horsepower for fuel economy (forget about towing a trailer or boat with a hybrid vehicle, at least for now). In addition, the hybrid market has been small; it is estimated to make up only 2% of the total automobile market in 2008, and many automakers have been slow to enter that market.

And, some believe that hybrid cars are not as effective a technology solution as alternative fuel technologies, such as ethanol made from corn, switch grass, or even hydrogen or saltwater.

I don\’t know what will power our vehicles in the future, but I know this: Steam power was replaced with electric power, and electric power was replaced by gasoline power, and eventually gasoline power will be replaced with something else. Whether hybrid cars represent the \”replacement\” or the means to find the replacement, they do represent a possible solution.

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