Pet Peeve: Hybrid Cars
Todays complaint is about hybrid cars. I'm not sure if they're called that in other countries so what I'm referring to are cars that use a battery to store energy accumulated during activities like braking to help propel the vehicle.
Don't get me wrong here. I think hybrid technology is wonderful. It should be in every vehicle--and should have been in them for a long time now. My gripe is that these cars are being marketed as being 'green' and environmentally sound. Personally I find that since they're totally dependent on gasoline for energy generation (the electric aspect is just recovered energy from the gasoline engine that would have otherwise been wasted) that calling hybrid cars environmentally friendly is a false claim. Solar cars, hydrogen cell cars, methane even--these don't cause the pollution that gasoline based internal combustion engines do. They are 'green' not hybrid cars.
I certainly am glad that some car models are finally increasing their efficiency and hope that this trend continues--and with less of a price gouge. It's funny to see people justify spending an extra $8,000 on a car due to gasoline increasing 50 cents a gallon. People typically use 500 gallons of gas a year per car. Dropping gas usage by 20% would save 100 gallons or about $250 per year. Any savings generated this way are probably going to be wiped out when you have to replace the battery in the car. Oh, well.
Don't get me wrong here. I think hybrid technology is wonderful. It should be in every vehicle--and should have been in them for a long time now. My gripe is that these cars are being marketed as being 'green' and environmentally sound. Personally I find that since they're totally dependent on gasoline for energy generation (the electric aspect is just recovered energy from the gasoline engine that would have otherwise been wasted) that calling hybrid cars environmentally friendly is a false claim. Solar cars, hydrogen cell cars, methane even--these don't cause the pollution that gasoline based internal combustion engines do. They are 'green' not hybrid cars.
I certainly am glad that some car models are finally increasing their efficiency and hope that this trend continues--and with less of a price gouge. It's funny to see people justify spending an extra $8,000 on a car due to gasoline increasing 50 cents a gallon. People typically use 500 gallons of gas a year per car. Dropping gas usage by 20% would save 100 gallons or about $250 per year. Any savings generated this way are probably going to be wiped out when you have to replace the battery in the car. Oh, well.
Comments
Of course, mine is an extreme example but I believe it would be a wonderful benefit personally to make such a change.
I don't know that the federal tax write-off applies to the purchase of a used vehicle. I won't be buying a new vehicle because the cost of a new hybrid reduces the benefit significantly. You can buy a lot of gasoline for $12K.
You're right about the tax rebate. It's only for new cars. Since the Prius has been out since around '97 there should be a good number of used vehicles in the market. So there should be write-offs for used vehicles too but I guess the political strategy isn't purely to help keep the air clean.
Given how popular the Prius is I'm surprised that there's such an attractive drop off in price on used vehicles. I might consider one also. While they don't have a huge advantage in highway mileage in city driving they're great. I just can't afford the $36k price on the new ones.
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