Friday, 28th November 2008

Hybrid cars are an expensive gimmick

James A. Tyrrell, Larne, N. Ireland

There has been a lot in the press lately regarding how great hybrid cars are. In a recent test carried out by Auto Express in England the Honda Civic hybrid, regarded widely as one of the lowest emitting cars, performed the worst in the tests.

Instead of the 109g/km of CO2 claimed in the makers' specifications, it was found to put out 171g/km.

The testers said its electric motor was "not strong enough to propel the oddball four-door Civic on its own" and they concluded that the vehicle "failed to match the firm's economy claims".

You also have to take into account the fact that the carbon footprint of a hybrid car during production is several times more than that produced by a conventional car. Given that the hybrid costs thousands of euros more than a conventional car, you are unlikely to either get your money back from an economy point of view or indeed recoup the carbon footprint created by the hybrid.

In short, as things stand at present, these cars are an expensive gimmick!

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 8, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

James A. Tyrrell (on 28/11/08)

Russell Lethbridge, you say that 'hybrids are still relatively new technology'. Albert Ellul, you say that 'these are the beginning of a new era in energy procurement'. Which is exactly the point I'm making. We are at the beginning of the road as far as hybrid car technology is concerned and I for one hope that we get to the true energy efficient car sooner rather than later. But we are not there yet.

The point I'm really trying to get across here is why should I pay above the odds for a so called efficient hybrid car, when I can buy a normal car which is a lot cheaper and a lot more economical, and which hasn't caused so much damage to the environment during its production?

Ing. Albert Ellul (on 28/11/08)

If hybrids are a gimmick, then why is the Prius so popular in the US? Please be positive about technical progress. This is the type of progress the world needs. Trying to ridicule hybrid cars just because they are not perfect is not fair. What is fair is that these are the beginning of a new era in energy procurement: Electricity is the future. Oil is seeing its end of glory. The new technologies are already taking over with the pure electric car being one of the ultimate aims and which is also seeing its first productions and sales. In twenty years time our cars will be electric and our energy will be produced mostly from renewable sources including the atom.

Russell Lethbridge (on 28/11/08)

The quote in this letter is a bit misleading, during the test of "green" cars in the magazine all of the cars conventional AND hybrid were found to have much higher emissions during the customised "test" than the official figures. See http://www.tiscali.co.uk/motoring/galleries/view/motoring/greencarsaretheyagimmick/browse/386986 for the full story.

Hybrids are still relatively new technology, they are not the finished product but certainly part of the path towards cars that pollute less. To claim they are a gimmick on the basis of one article is rather shallow.