The term ‘hybrid vehicle’ defines a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to power up the vehicle. However, the term more commonly points to the electric hybrid vehicles. These vehicles run with the combined operation of internal combustion engine and one or more electric motor. Such combination enables hybrid cars to have higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions compared to the traditional gas-powered cars.
Some power sources for the hybrid cars include on-board or out-board rechargeable energy storage systems (RESS), compressed air engines, coal, wood or other solid combustibles, electricity, electromagnetic fields, radio waves, compressed natural gas, hydrogen, liquid nitrogen, solar cells, etc.
Hybrid cars are nowadays becoming more and more popular, especially as gas prices seem to be going up all the time, and as climate change problem is becoming more and more serious. People are opting for more and more hybrid vehicles in order to cut short their expenses and in order to play their part in an effort to save the environment.
So, whether these hybrid vehicles are really a step towards a greener environment or not? In relation to the above discussion there are two main advantages of hybrid cars as compared to traditional cars, one is lower CO2 emissions, this implies that there may be less impact to global warming, termed as the environmental advantage of hybrid cars, and the other, obviously is the higher fuel efficiency that can save you sufficient amount of money over the years, more commonly termed as the economic advantage of hybrid cars. Both these advantages point to a step towards a greener environment. It also shows that people are becoming more and more aware of climatic changes as a result of the gasoline engines so they want to switch to hybrid technology.
After considering the advantages of the hybrid vehicles, we cannot overlook the disadvantages, everything comes with a price to pay. Hybrid vehicles are generally more expensive than the traditional gasoline powered cars. One other disadvantage is the weight of the vehicle, hybrid vehicles are usually heavier than the simple vehicles as they house two or more sources of power to drive the vehicle. Most of the times, the increased weight is because of the batteries as they are very heavy.
While there is no doubt that hybrid vehicles are the future of cheap transport and a greener environment but, the hefty price tag and small scale production are the two major things which are stopping the customers to buy them.
Once the production cost will become equal to the conventional cars, we are most likely to expect a mass production of hybrid cars and a change in trend regarding how customers compare vehicles. We hope that governmental institutions plan and work in accord with the climatic changes and gas prices to make this planet a more greener place to live in.