Today's hybrid cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles team an electric motor and battery pack with a gasoline engine that would have to be larger — or at least would have to work harder — without it.
From the driver's perspective they drive like any other car; they get filled with gas and off they go.
Some systems are more elaborate than others, with the most complex typically delivering better mileage and costing more than the modest type.
With more than a dozen gasoline/electric hybrids now on the market, and as many to come within a year, it would seem that there are more ways than ever before to save money on gas.
Maybe not. Even with the rise in gas prices, the premium price of hybrids means it could take years — possibly more than you're willing to invest — just to break even on fuel savings.
It depends on what you pay for the car, minus any federal or regional incentives you're able to exploit, and what you're comparing the hybrid against.
The most favorable calculation puts the hybrid up against a comparably equipped model. However, most hybrids are the equivalent of well-equipped, higher trim levels. So if you compare them to a more modest gas-only version, you'll find the long-term payback elusive.
Hybrids aren't by nature clean, in the pollution sense, but their manufacturers have made a point of marketing models that are among the cleanest cars on the road, with pollution scores as high as 9.5 or 10 on the EPA's Green Vehicle scale, where 10 is cleanest.
The less sophisticated hybrids typically aren't as clean, and the larger models pay a price for their higher overall emissions.
The biggest long-term problem for the current type of hybrid is cost. Automakers don't discuss it freely, but most hybrids are sold at a loss, and the increase in volume won't account for the cost of two drivetrains in one car.
That doesn't mean you should avoid them yourself. They've been more trouble-free than expected.
Concerns and rumors about battery death and replacement costs have been greatly overestimated and are largely unsubstantiated in our experience.
