For many car buyers, hybrids seem like a great compromise between gasoline and electric vehicles. Hybrids, which combine internal combustion engines and electric motors, produce less pollution and use less fuel than conventional automobiles. And, owners never need to worry about running out of battery power on a lonely highway.
But while hybrids do save money for some people, that’s not always the case. And many experts and environmental groups are critical of hybrids, saying that the fuel savings are exaggerated and that they don’t cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as needed to slow global warming.
Still, many car shoppers are clearly convinced of the benefits. Sales of hybrid cars in the United States were up 33 percent from January through July compared to the previous year, accounting for 11 percent of new car sales, according to government data.
Here’s what to know if you’re in the market.
Not all hybrids are created equalThere are basically two kinds of hybrids: conventional and plug-in. Conventional hybrids, also known as mild hybrids, have equipment that recaptures some of the energy from braking and uses it to charge a battery. Then, the battery powers an electric motor that augments the gasoline engine.
This setup helps compensate for the inherent inefficiency of gasoline engines. A gasoline car typically converts less than a third of the energy in a gallon of fuel into forward motion. Some of the energy is wasted by the brakes, which convert motion to heat.
By recycling some of that lost energy to charge a battery, the $28,000 base model of the Toyota Prius, to cite one example, gets 57 miles to the gallon, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates.
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