Hybrid Cars
The short-cut to urban fuel efficiency
And while hybrids may be 10-20% more expensive to buy, lower road tax and congestion charge exemptions also help make your money back. For a start, your road tax is only £40, a third of that for a Ford Fiesta. (See Direct Gov for more information.)
The fuel efficiency of hybrids depends on where you drive them. While city drivers will reap the greatest benefits from the electric engine, diesel cars may deliver lower emissions to motorway commuters.
So what does all this mean environmentally - well it roughly it saves about 1,070kg of CO2 a year
How does it work?
The hybrid contains a petrol engine and an electric motor and automatically selects the most efficient engine for the driving conditions - usually electric for slow, town driving and petrol for high-speed long hauls.
What's the debate?
Critics claim the virtues of hybrids have been overstated. One concern is that their manufacture produces more carbon than making traditional cars, sparking a debate over whether notoriously oversized Hummer 4x4s are actually better for the climate than hybrids. In reality, recent research by the Pacific Institute shows that hybrid cars have a much lower climate impact than Hummers - and generally save much more energy than is used in their manufacture.
Another issue is that most hybrids have petrol engines which - when in use - are less fuel efficient than diesels. This is true, although the efficiency of the electric engines compensates for this. Diesel-electric hybrids are expected to hit the market by the end of the decade.
"They cost how much?"
New hybrids cost from £17,000-38,000. Battery pack replacement is rare but if something does go wrong, manufacturers are providing generous battery warranties (generally about eight to ten years and 80,000 to 100,000 miles).
But remember that there are always other options!!
Although you may have initially decided that a hybrid car seems like the obvious choice, we would suggest looking at some of the other options out there.
if you review the information about some of the other types of highly fuel efficient petrol and diesel cars, you might be surprised.
Show me other fuel types: