[SteveMcKing]

Any product that has acquired 10 myths must have serious issues, no matter if they are real myths or not.

[Eagles Talon IV]

Should have been 11 myths. They left out the myth that Hybrids' actually get 50-60 miles per gallon as it says on the sticker.

[domenad]

That plug-in thing kind of aggravates me. If you could just get to work and home on a battery charge, why bother with gas?

[American Quilter]

This was very interesting--thanks for providing it. I plan to replace my current car in about five years, and will be willing to consider a hybrid. Performance, reliability, and cost are the important factors to me, though I'd also love it if we could tell the world "No thanks, we don't need your oil any more." I realize we're nowhere near that point now.

[Jeff Chandler]

Hybrids are so passe. I heard on the Phil Hendry show about the latest technology: wind-powered cars.

[AbeKrieger]

And if your commute back and forth to work is downhill in both directions you won't use ANY gas at all !!!!

[Pondman88]

When hot young women start driving these, maybe I'll care.

[bannedfromdu]

I think all you guys should go out and immediately buy a Prius.


(I need the gas for my Mustang)

[duckman]

I don't know how true this is, but I heard that it can cost upward of $4500.00 to have a battery pack replaced in the hybrids. Is this correct?

[cpdiii]

An electric car that recharges from the power grid actually uses more energy in total than a gasoline engine. The vast majority of our electricity is generated with coal, gas and fuel oil. At each conversion of energy you lose a certain percentage of the total energy available in the fuel. You lose energy when you convert fuel to motive power for the electric turbine, you lose energy in the transmission of the electricity to your house, you lose energy when you charge the batteries of the car, you lose energy when the battery discharges to run the electric motor of the car. The whole concept of charging car batteries from electric power is a loser unless the electricity is coming from nuclear power plants, or renewable sources. To run an electric car from batteries that are recharged from the electric grid will use more hydrocarbons than the gasoline to run the car. Nuclear and solar (if they ever get the cost of solar panels down to economic levels) is the way out of our energy mess.

If the green weenies and the liberals will just keep their damn hands off the market place it will take care of the problem.

PS
Considering the recent record snow fall in New York and Bitter Cold in Europe, this would be a good time to do poll of the public in those area about their belief in Global Warming.

PS PS
I forgot to add it is Bush's Fault. :)

[HamiltonJay]

Hybrids save ZERO gas/resources over well developed injected Diesel technology... the fact that the Fed gives tax and cafe breaks for this scam is unconscionable.

[sgtbono2002]

Ford makes a small SUV in Gas or Hybrid and I heard the Gas car gets better mileage that the hybrid.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Old technology with a shiny new wrapper...

[camle]

what about the studyu posted here a few weeks ago that showed that some gas only cars were more efficient than hybrids, and that hybrids didn't live up to their hype.

[XRdsRev]

My business partner's brother Eddie bought a hybrid vehicle last year. He commutes approximately 60 miles a day.

He loves the thing. Says it is great on gas and has more power than you would think it would.

[Paradox]

I'll consider one someday I am sure. When it makes economic sense, I'll buy one.

[pageonetoo]

I drive my Lincoln towncar about 40k per year. I get around 24mpg avg, since most is on the highway. It is a large, comfortable LUXURY car, with a ride that is unrivaled. Ihold title.

At $2.50 a gallon, it would cost me around $1700 a year for fuel. Maintenance is maybe another $1200-1500 a year (not really, but just for discussion), including tires, oil, etc.

A new hybrid would cost me five times what I presently spend, since I would have to buy it, and maintain it. Then, I would enjoy a savings of $-X?

I am not going to ever be green enough to buy one for environmental reasons. All cars built today give few emissions. Even if I were to buy a new Honda hybrid, the extra $5000 in cost can't possibly be replaced by the projected fuel savings. The regular Civic gets ridiculous mileage right now, and the hybrid is a nightmare for the service departments!

If I were to buy a new car today, it would be a turbo diesel from someone, probably a VolksWagen.

A brilliant 5.0L, V-10 twin turbo diesel is now available as an option in the awesome 2005 VW Touareg. MSRP is $57,800 (and goes north from there). The premium over the comparably equipped gasoline V-8 model is roughly $13,000. Is the V-10 diesel engine worth the extra cash? Absolutely. It may well be best high performance passenger automobile engine available anywhere. It perfectly complements the remarkably capable Touareg. All VW models carry a basic warranty of 4years/50,000 miles.

[oldbill]

Articles like this are what happens when journalists try to talk about technical things.

In addition to the myths, add some truths.

There is no free lunch in the energy world. Unaddressed in this article are the additional costs that are passed on to other poor suckers that makes the total cost (energy, environment) for hybrids a lot more than the status quo.

Consider the energy expended producing all those batteries, and the environmental effects of throwing them away, as happens to all batteries. That little battery they put in your watch comes with all kinds of warnings about how you should dispose of it to avoid poisoning the world. You think a couple of hundred pounds of car batteries will go in the wastebasket? Once hybrids reach critical mass states will impose disposal fees on the original purchase price to pay for battery disposal, just like bottles and cans now.

There are a lot of other technical show stoppers on mass conversion to hybrids. Bottom line is that for the foreseeable future, you just can't beat the highly matured technology of the plain old gas car. Just try to find any other energy source where you can compact enough energy in a space the size of a suitcase to propel a 3000 pound vehicle 300-400 miles.

[Londo Molari]

Locomotives have used hybrid technology since the 1930's. Locomotives have a large diesel engine coupled to a generator. The electricity generated turns the motors in the trucks.

The engines will be more efficient because they can be designed to run at their most efficient speed. The regenerative braking is more efficient because it allows you to convert some of your kinetic energy into electric energy to recharge your batteries -- the current braking systems create heat energy, which is waste.

I hope we do start to get reliable, powerful and fuel efficient vehicles -- takes money from those scumbag arabs.

[The Great RJ]

What happens when a hybrid gets creamed on the highway by say a large truck and the battery is ruptured ...wouldn't this be a Haz-Mat spill? Who will pay for the clean-up? When the hybrid is totalled or no longer serviceable how does the battery get disposed and who will pay for this disposal? How well do these vehicles perform under adverse conditions like below zero weather?