Crazy for hybrids

Cameron Diaz drives one. So does Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio and Michele Foust.
Foust, a journalist from Marietta, Georgia, just loves her Toyota Prius – just like the Hollywood stars who are showing their environmental stripes.
“I really appreciate the fuel economy but also appreciate the fact that it’s a comfortable car for driving and how much I can haul in it,” she said.
The Prius is the best-selling car among a growing number of hybrid vehicles, which have both gasoline and electric motors. They boast the best mileage in government tests as well as lower levels of greenhouse-gas emissions.
But there’s a price to pay. Hybrid versions of vehicles like the Honda Civic or Ford Escape, for example, cost roughly $2,000 to $3,000 more than the gasoline-only engine versions.
That means it takes a lot of driving to save enough money to make up the difference.
If gasoline costs $2.50 a gallon, it would take 11 years of driving 12,000 miles a year to break even between conventional and hybrid Civics.
Additionally, hybrid owners have expressed some dissatisfaction with their gas mileage. It isn’t as great as advertised.
Part of the problem is the mileage ratings themselves. Real-world drivers know the mileage figures on the sticker are, to say the least, generous. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely overstates mileage in its tightly controlled and optimum test conditions.
“We estimate it’s off by 14 percent,” said Phil Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com, an automotive information Web site. Because hybrids get such good mileage, being off by 14 percent “appears to be a serious discrepancy,” he said.
The Prius is far and away the most efficient vehicle on the road at 60 mpg city and 51 highway, according to the EPA. Foust said she gets close to 50 mpg on the highway but a little less in the city.
As hybrid technology becomes more widespread, the cost is likely to come down.
Already, Toyota has added hybrid power plants to its Camry family-size sedan, Lexus GS 450h luxury sedan, and Toyota Highlander and Lexus 400h sport utility vehicles. Honda has a hybrid Accord, another family-size sedan. Besides the Escape, Ford has a hybrid version of its sibling SUV, the Mercury Mariner, and General Motors just introduced a hybrid in its Saturn Vue SUV in addition to limited hybrid systems in its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup trucks.
And while hybrid cars have been around for a few years, their lifetime operating costs are still unknown. So far, routine maintenance and oil changes have been comparable to conventional cars, according to Edmunds.com. Manufacturers say the battery packs should last the life of the car.
In the meantime, there are plenty of fuel-efficient vehicles already on the market that can rival a hybrid’s efficiency.
According to the EPA, other gasoline-powered cars with exceptionally good economy include the Toyota Yaris subcompact car at 34 city/39 highway, and the Honda Fit, a new, small station wagon, at 33 city/38 highway.
And there will be more options in the near future as cleaner, more efficient diesel-powered vehicles re-enter the U.S. market.
Long popular in Europe, diesels have overcome their bad reputation for belching black, smelly smoke and performing like a car with engine trouble.
New diesel technologies have improved performance on a par with gasoline engines, and ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel is being introduced in the U.S. Sometimes, when gasoline prices get really high, diesel fuel is actually less expensive.
Driving a hybrid vehicle takes a little getting used to. For one thing, the gasoline motor shuts off when you’re stopped at a traffic light. It sounds like the engine went dead – which it did. A computer knows you’re not going anywhere, so it turns off the gasoline engine.
When the light turns green, the electric motor gets you started, and the gasoline engine kicks in as you accelerate. There’s no wasting gas while you’re idling.
That computer is darn smart, too. When you don’t need a lot of power, like at slow speeds and when you’re coasting down a hill, the computer can turn off the engine to save gas. But when you need it to go up the other side of the hill, gasoline and electric motors work together to give you some extra oomph.
Often included as standard equipment on hybrids, or available as an option, is an in-dash screen that shows when the gasoline and electric motors are working, as well as fuel consumption.
The car’s batteries – yes, the electric motor runs on batteries, but you don’t have to plug it in – are recharged when you hit the brakes. It’s called regenerative braking, which converts the energy during coasting into juice for the batteries.

By Karl W. Ritzler
Originally posted on divinecaroline.com

A comparison
Honda Civic Hybrid
Vehicle: four-door sedan
Base MSRP: $22,600
Drivetrain: 1.4-liter four-cylinder with electric motor and continuously variable transmission
Mileage: 49 mpg city/ 51 mpg highway

Honda Civic EX (comparably equipped, gasoline only)
Vehicle: four-door sedan
Base MSRP: $19,510
Drivetrain: 1.8-liter four-cylinder with automatic transmission
Mileage: 30 mpg city/ 40 mpg highway

Ford Escape Hybrid
Vehicle: four-door, front-wheel drive small sport utility vehicle
Base MSRP: $25,665
Drivetrain: 2.3-liter four-cylinder with electric motor and continuously variable transmission
Mileage: 36 mpg city/31 mpg highway

Ford Escape XLT (comparably equipped gasoline only*)
Vehicle: four-door, front-wheel drive small sport utility vehicle
Base MSRP: $22,280 (four-cylinder engine) or $23,130 (six-cylinder engine)
Drivetrain: 2.3-liter four-cylinder or 3.0-liter six cylinder, both with automatic transmission
Mileage: Four-cylinder, 23 mpg city/26 mph highway; six-cylinder, 23 mpg city/26 mph highway

*Because Ford and Toyota hybrids use only the electric motors at low speeds, mileage in stop-and-go city traffic tends to be higher than highway mileage.

Source: Edmunds.com