What’s All the Hoopla about Hybrids?

With the growing cost of gasoline there is a growing interest in hybrids.  Many celebrities own a hybrid, with the Prius being their number one choice.  This year at the Oscars a limo company offered Prius’s to the stars that wanted to show that they were “green”.  I myself own a Prius and love it!  I purchased one because I not only wanted a car with good fuel economy, but also that had lower greenhouse emissions.  In areas where the community tends to be a bit “greener” owning a hybrid has become a status symbol.  More and more companies are offering hybrids from Lexus to Toyota; there is a hybrid model for just about everyone.

While hybrids have wonderful gas mileage and are better for our planet, there are some drawbacks.  One is the cost, they are more expensive that conventional models even though the margin is narrowing.  The gas mileage on the highway driving isn’t as good as it is in the city either, although in my experience it is still good.  They also don’t have as much out of the gate power as the gas only models either.  To me these are all very small prices to pay for a vehicle that not only helps protect our planet but also gets 48-50 mpg (this again is from my personal experience). 

To get the best mileage from a hybrid you want drive with a lighter foot & use even acceleration.  Once you reach your desired mph back your foot off the accelerator until you don’t lose any speed.  In the Prius this is easy to do as they have a great monitoring system that for the goal oriented in us will prove to give us the incentive to do just that.  At least it does me

For what we have available to us at this time the hybrid is the best choice for those of us who need a car.  I did run into a bit of great news for the future of the hybrids!  They are working on a way to store the energy the hybrids and electric cars generate so that they can help supply energy to the energy grid while they are not being driven!  If the power company wants people to participate, it would need to pay us for using our vehicles as their power boosts though…hmm wouldn’t that be something, being paid by the electric company!  To read more about that research visit New Scientist. 

Sometime Thursday my next article on ethanol will be posted. 

S

~ by digitalpoetry on December 16, 2007.