ALT-1 Economic Benefits of Hybrid Cars
With the new craze of hybrid cars hitting vehicle manufacturers lately, there are some pretty awesome new cars coming on the market. Gas prices soaring and commutes getting longer, more and more people are turning to these fuel efficient and environmentally friendly automobiles. The military even is now using hybrid cars for many purposes. This is just one small step toward protecting our environment as well as our pocket books.A hybrid car is one that uses a combination of electricity and gas to go farther distances than your traditional gasoline only engine. The gas in a hybrid is used only as a backup to the battery while it is being recharged. Then when the battery is good to go the car seamlessly switches back to electric power. The driver never even notices this transition going on under the hood. When the car brakes, the engine captures the energy and stores it in the batteries instead of letting it off into the ozone layer (Dales). Needless to say, everything good comes with something not so good. There are pros and cons to everything in life and hybrids are no different.First we will get those nasty cons out of the way. First of all there is the lack of selection available to consumers. Many of the cars are too small for many families because the market has been more focused on commuting business people who may want a small car for that purpose. Because families also want their fair share in this market, manufacturers are creating larger fuel efficient hybrids.The problem with this is of course, price. The larger hybrids being created still usually only seat five passengers and cost much more than your average sedan, making them much more unattractive to the average family in America (hybridcars.com). The smaller hybrid cars also cost more than their gasoline only counterparts so many people assume that the money they are saving in gas is being spent on the car payment. So for this I used the gas mileage impact calculator on hybridcars.com. I compared my Dodge Ram to the Chevy Silverado Hybrid because of the comparable size and passenger count. After plugging in the different vehicles it takes me to how many miles per year and the average gas price in my area. So I put in the 30,000 miles per year that my husband commutes and the $3.40 per gallon of gas. The calculator came up with about $1000 in savings per year on gas (hybridcars.com). Chevrolet offers their Silverado Hybrid at a starting price of $29,900 (Chevrolet) compared with the starting price of a Dodge Ram which is $22,405 (Dodge). Using the same interest rate over a traditional five year loan, the Chevy would cost almost $2000 more per year than the Dodge. So the savings in gas would not balance with the cost of the vehicle.Now let's say that my husband drives a real commuter hybrid car compared with his Dodge. With the same numbers plugged in, using a Honda Civic hybrid, the cost of fuel saved would be over $4000 per year and the starting price is $22,600 (Honda) which is close to the same as the Dodge Ram. So here the savings would come in very handy. Obviously this would be a pro and not a con.Another advantage to owning a hybrid car would be the enormous difference in mileage. The average hybrid car can run 60 mpg on the highway compared with the 18 mpg of our Dodge truck. Then there is the very peaceful and smooth ride that the hybrids offer. When the car starts up, it uses electric power which is much quieter than the gas start up of most cars. It definitely takes some getting used to but once you have one, you just cannot go back to the old noisy cars. The ride is so quiet and smooth that you almost feel like the car is not running at all (Worley).There is one other financial advantage worthy of mention as well. Auto insurance companies are beginning to reward consumers with as much as ten percent discounts for owning a hybrid car. This can have an even larger impact on the pocket book when added in with the savings per year on gas (hybridcars.com).California has one of the largest highway systems with carpool lanes in the country. Carpool lanes are meant to reward those drivers commuting to work who carpool with co-workers. California is now allowing all hybrid cars to use the carpool lanes no matter how many people are in the car (Worley). This little reward may seem like nothing to some people but there are those out there who do consider this a huge advantage. But there are still skeptics out there.One common myth is that you have to plug the car in to recharge the batteries. That is no longer true as the brake system and design of the engine automatically recharges while you drive. There is also the misconception about the batteries not lasting very long. The way they designed the batteries to never be fully charged or fully drained, they last very long. One taxi driver in Vancouver drove his Prius hybrid for 200,000 miles and the battery was still like new (hybridcars.com). Hybrids are also thought to be underpowered. Recently Al Gore was pulled over for doing over 100 miles per hour in his hybrid car (hybridcars.com).What can we say? Hybrid cars are now being manufactured with all the issues in mind. They can go just as fast, there is no inconvenience of having to plug it in, the batteries last a very long time, and you can still fill up at your local gas station when you need to. Hybrids are being manufactured every day with new concepts coming out all the time. It is the next big thing.
Works CitedChevrolet. Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid. 2007. 27 July 2007 .Dales, Jessica. Hybrid Technology. December 2005. 27 July 2007 .Dodge. Dodge Ram. 2007. 27 July 2007 .Honda. Honda Civic Hybrid. 2007. 27 July 2007 .hybridcars.com. Hybrid Cars. Ed. Bradley Berman. 2007. 27 July 2007 .Worley, Becky. ABC News: Buying an Eco Friendly Car. 13 March 2006. 27 July 2007 .
