Saving energy and preserving the environment are two big focus goals of today’s society. As a product of this, hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular, and advanced. Hybrid vehicles are ones that utilize both a fuel running engine and a high powered battery. It combines the power of traditional gas, and uses the battery to harness all of the energy that a normal vehicle normally wastes. There are absolutely terrific reasons to jump into the world of hybrid vehicles, but nothing comes without it’s downfalls.
The Advantages of Hybrid Cars
1. Much Cleaner Energy
The main reason that hybrid cars where developed was to help solve the pollution problems that are caused by traditional, fuel ran cars. While they still use some amounts of fuel, it is much less than normal vehicles. They release a drastically lower amount of carbon emissions, which are green house gases that cause pollution and global warming.
2. Higher Gas Mileage, Lower Gas Costs
Another great benefit of driving a hybrid vehicle is the fact that is uses a significantly lower amount of gas than traditional cars do. This is because all of the energy that would normally be wasted, like moving from a stop, the air conditioner, and other things, are powered by the battery instead of the fuel. Along with using less gas, hybrid cars have very high gas mileage, which saves you even more money.
3. Serious Incentives
Many states and countries want people to switch to hybrid vehicles. It boosts the economy and greatly helps to preserve the environment and fuel supplies. Because of this, tax benefits are often given to people who buy or own a hybrid vehicle.
4. Quiet As A Mouse
When you start up a hybrid vehicle, yo may not even realize it! The engine is so quiet that you can hardly hear it all, this is true even when you are driving down the road. The unique engine and power supplies are the cause of this silence.
5. Regenerative Battery
Another unique advantage of hybrid vehicles is that the battery regenerates itself, which means that you don’t have to charge it before use. Every time you break, the energy you are stopping is harnesses and used to regenerate the battery in the vehicle.
6. Very High Resale Potential
Hybrid cars are more expensive initially, but save you quite a pretty penny in the long run. For this reason, they are highly attractive vehicles to anyone looking to purchase a preowned car, including dealerships. Hybrid cars have some of the highest resale values on the market.
The Disadvantages of Hybrid Cars
1. Light Weight Isn’t Always Good
In order to boost the amount of fuel that is saved, the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles try to make them as light as possible. They do this by using very light materials, and removing any unnecessary things. The result of this isn’t only better gas mileage, but very poor handling as well. It can be difficult to control a hybrid car, especially in windy or unstable weather conditions.
2. Much More Expensive
The initial costs of buying a hybrid car can be nearly 15 thousand dollars more than the same car in a traditional model. If you are not planning to drive the car long distances, or even much at all, then a hybrid car doesn’t have the return on investment that people anticipate.
3. Maintenance Is Difficult
With every new piece of technology comes the need for people who know how to work on and fix it. The same is true with hybrid cars. Since they have not been around for a very long time, it is very expensive to have any type of maintenance done on them.
4. Danger!
Since the materials of the vehicle are made out of light weight things, the amount of safety that the vehicle has is highly compromised. If a hybrid car is in a high impact collision, the materials that are protecting the passengers and drivers can not do their job as well.
Important Facts About Hybrid Cars
