What are disadvantages of hybrids
What Are The Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Hybrid Car?
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America is slowly shifting away from gasoline-gulping vehicles toward electric vehicles (EVs), and the key transitional link between the eras is hybrid technology. Hybrids blend gas and electric power into one system to make environmentally friendly vehicles that are free of EV range anxiety.
Manufacturers have been touting the advantageous fuel efficiency of hybrids throughout The Prius Era, but they have yet to be universally accepted across all consumers, and for good reasons. Just as they have perks, hybrids also have significant issues.
If youre in the market for a new car and a hybrid is in play, The Drives informational team is here to explain how a hybrid works, why they can be perfect vehicles, and why they can leave much to be desired. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid car.
What Is a Hybrid Car?
A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two types of fuel and energy sources to achieve a singular goal of efficient propulsion. The most common type of hybrid vehicle blends a gasoline-powered combustion engine with one or more electric motors and a battery storage pack to achieve better fuel economy than a vehicle with only a combustion engine. Hybrids also use regenerative braking to return small amounts of electricity to their batteries.
What Is Regenerative Braking?
Regenerative braking is the act of recovering energy through the cars braking system. Typically, when a non-hybrid car brakes, kinetic energy is transformed into heat and released due to the friction between the brake pads and the brake. When the brake pedal is pressed on hybrid and electric vehicles, the electric motor turns into a generator, and the wheels transfer the energy from the drivetrain to the generator. The generator then turns the kinetic energy into electric energy and stores it in the battery. The generative energy torque from the generator slows the vehicle down.
What Is MPGe?
MPGe, which is used to measure the fuel economy of hybrid and electric vehicles, stands for miles per gallon equivalent. According to the United States Department of Energy, 33.70kWh of electricity has 100 percent of the energy of one gallon of gasoline. Thus, if a vehicle is able to run for 100 miles on 33.70 kwh, it is rated at 100 MPGe.
Types of Hybrids
Just as there are multiple types of combustion engines, there are also multiple types of hybrid powertrains. Lets break it down into simple terms.
Mild Hybrid
On mild hybrids, the electric components are not capable of directly driving the wheels on their own. Instead, a small battery pack and electric motor act as assistants to help improve fuel economy, slightly increase performance with bursts of torque, regenerate energy, and power accessories. One of the most common jobs for an electric motor in a mild hybrid is to double as a starter and power the start-stop technology. More capable and efficient mild hybrids with 48-volt battery packs have recently proliferated throughout the industry.
Full Hybrid
A full hybrid car has electric components that can directly drive the wheels on their own, without the gas engine. Different types of full hybrids include parallel hybrids, series hybrids, and plug-in hybrids.
Parallel Hybrid: This is the most common type of hybrid. On parallel hybrids, both the battery-fed electric motor and gas engine have direct connections to the drive wheels through a coupling mechanism such as a transmission. Parallel hybrids can have one, two, or three electric motors, depending on the vehicle.
Series Hybrid: Think of a series hybrid as an electric vehicle with a gas-powered generator attached. With no direct connection to the drive wheels, the gas engine recharges the battery while the electric motor(s) handles the propulsion. A perfect example of a series hybrid is the quirky and cool BMW i3 with a range extender.
Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV): A plug-in hybrid is essentially a parallel hybrid with a larger battery pack that requires charging from an external source through a plug. By storing more energy, a PHEV can drive using 100 percent electric propulsion, though the amount of pure-electric range is still limited to relatively short trips around town. Plug-in hybrid technology has been applied to pedestrian vehicles such as the now-dead-but-still-great Chevrolet Volt, as well as performance-minded hypercars such as the McLaren P1.
Advantages of Hybrid Cars
The decision to buy a hybrid car should not be taken lightly, as they have good and bad qualities just like anything else. Its up to you to decide: Do the advantages outweigh the negatives?
Fuel economy: Whether you care about the earth or not, increased fuel economy means fewer trips to the gas station and more money in your pockets.
Environmentally friendly: The entire point of hybrid vehicles is to reduce emissions and protect the environment through better fuel efficiency.
Performance: In certain applications such as the Acura NSX, gasoline and electricity work in tandem to produce increased performance through extra power, extra torque, wheel control, traction, and braking.
Unique trimmings: Manufacturers often want to alert the world that its hybrids are hybrids, so these models are often fitted with unique exterior lighting, extra badging, limited colors, wild designs, and eco-friendly alternative materials. Everybody knows the Prius because nothing else looks like it.
No range anxiety: One of the primary reasons consumers avoid electric vehicles is the fear the car will die and leave its occupants stranded. Its a phenomenon known as range anxiety, and its completely eliminated on hybrid vehicles with backup gas power.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Cars
Price: Thanks in part to the extra costs of researching and implementing their technology, hybrid models often cost more than the traditional base gasoline variants of the same model.
Performance: When fuel economy is prioritized over fun and engagement, enthusiasts will see themselves out.
Packaging: Although variety is increasing in the hybrid market due to increased saturation, hybrids are often built to specific parameters for specific people. Unfortunately, this means the buyer has less flexibility in choosing the trims and features he or she wants. For example, Toyota only recently drastically expanded its Prius audience by introducing an all-wheel drive option.
Complex to wrench on: Hybrids are generally more complex and more difficult to fix than traditional combustion cars. If a person isnt comfortable working on their own vehicle, he or she might end up spending more money at the shop.
Rare-earth metals and mining: It can be true that hybrids are both helpful and harmful to the environment at the same time. Although they reduce emissions and greenhouse gases, large batteries in hybrids and electric vehicles utilize materials that are harvested and mined from the earth. The increase in hybrid popularity means these materials are mined at a greater rate, and in some cases, the mining operations are unfair and unsafe to its workers.
Batteries die: Until batteries can be efficiently and cost-effectively recycled, there will be concern about how to dispose of millions of large dead battery packs.
Looks: This is changing, but there arent many legitimately beautiful hybrid vehicles out there, and a cool affordable mass-market hybrid still does not exist. The new Ford Bronco hybrid could change that.
Plug-in hybrids require a plug: For a variety of reasons such as apartment rules, some people are unable to install home plug-in systems for easy charging. That can be extremely inconvenient.
What Are the Best Hybrid Cars?
Best is subjective, based on the budget, desires, and priorities of the buyer, but here are some of the objectively solid hybrid offerings on the market today.
Sedans and Hatchbacks
2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid (45 highway/51 city/47 combined): The four-door Sonata sedan recently entered a new generation with dramatic proportions, sharp looks, and luxurious tech.
2020 Toyota Prius+ Toyota Corolla Hybrid (54/50/52 mpg): The core four-door Prius hatchback is complemented by the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid and the new discreet four-door Corolla Hybrid sedan, which uses Prius technology to achieve 53/52/52 mpg.
2020 Hyundai Ioniq Family (55/54/55 mpg): Hyundai has developed the four-door Ioniq hatchback into a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, and an electric vehicle with up to 170 miles of range. The Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid Blue is EPA-rated at 57/59/58 mpg. Starting at roughly $25,000, its one of the best hybrid offerings on the market.
2020 Honda Accord Hybrid (48/47/48 mpg): The four-door Honda Accord family sedan is one of the best cars for sale in America, full stop. The option for a hybrid model that gets nearly 50 miles per gallon further cements its standing.
2020 Lexus ES 300h (43/44/44): Sharing components with the Toyota Avalon, the four-door ES 300h luxury sedan combines elegant styling with Lexus build quality and impressive gas mileage.
Crossovers and SUVs
2020 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid (41/38/40 mpg): With rugged looks, available all-wheel drive, and Toyota reliability, the Rav4 Hybrid starts at just less than $30,000. For roughly $10K more, the 2021 Rav4 Prime plug-in hybrid is EPA-rated at 94 mpge and 42 miles of pure electric range.
2020 Kia Niro Family (52/49/50 mpg): Kia offers the Niro with a gasoline engine, a hybrid powertrain, a plug-in hybrid powertrain, or a battery-electric powertrain. With great space, inoffensive styling, and Kia value, its a great option for prospective crossover buyers.
2020 Ford Escape Hybrid (44/37/41 mpg): With no sedans left to sell, Ford is betting big on its crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. The new Escape has curvy European styling and is available as a hybrid thats rated to get more than 40 mpg.
2020 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (82 mpge combined, 32 miles electric range): The hybrid Pacifica could end up being one of the most complete family vehicles ever offered. Its legitimately attractive, inside and out, extremely versatile, and can seat up to seven people.
Performance Cars
2020 Acura NSX (21/22/21 mpg): The new NSX might not be naturally aspirated like its predecessor, but its an underrated and overlooked machine that will forever live in history as one of the first legitimate hybrid supercars.
2020 BMW i8 (69 mpge, 18 miles electric range): BMW produced two of the most interesting vehicles of the century when it launched the i3 and i8 programs. Whereas the i3 is a highly advanced city car, the i8 fills a small niche as a luxury plug-in hybrid sports car with other-wordly looks.
2020 Lexus LC 500h (27/35/30 mpg): Touting one of the most beautiful design executions in recent memory, the LC is a nearly perfect luxury grand tourer. Its performance isnt supercar strong, but its plush interior and comfortably composed ride make it a private haven.
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CarBuzz
Hybrid cars are becoming increasingly popular, and they can be an excellent intermediate step for those who want to explore electrification without buying a fully electric vehicle yet. With several types of hybrid car available, from mild hybrid to plug-in hybrid, there is a wide variety of choices available no matter what your lifestyle and driving needs.
But what are the pros and cons of hybrids? When does a hybrid suit your lifestyle, and when is it simply unnecessary? To answer these questions, we first need to understand the basics of hybrids.
Types of Hybrid Vehicles
There are three main varieties of hybrid cars currently available on the market:
- Mild hybrid cars are the newest type of hybrid on the market and are rapidly gaining in popularity due to the fact that many cars you don't think of as hybrids use this type of powertrain. The BMW M340i, for example, supports its inline six with mild hybrid propulsion. Their main source of power is their traditional internal combustion engine. The electric motor (which has a battery charged via regenerative braking and does not need plugging in) exclusively serves the purpose of improving fuel economy by assisting in pulling away from a standstill, coasting, and using the 48-volt hybrid system to power ancillaries (air-con, infotainment, etc) and remove this load from the combustion engine. A mild hybrid vehicle is as close as you can get to a traditional ICE car while still enjoying the improved fuel economy of a hybrid, so you get the best of both worlds.
- Full (self-charging) hybrids also use regenerative braking to charge the electric motor, but unlike a mild hybrid, they can drive for a short distance on electric power alone, which makes them an ideal candidate for a prospective buyer with a short, city-based commute. The regular Toyota Prius is an example of this type of hybrid.
- Plug-in hybrids, as their name suggests, can be plugged into an external electric power source and charged to function as a hybrid, but they can also utilize regenerative braking, coasting, and charging via ICE. Thanks to their larger battery, they have the ability to utilize for full-electric-mode driving.
Some Pros And Cons Of Hybrids
Like any other type of vehicle, hybrid cars also have some drawbacks; despite being hyped as the optimal choice to future-proof your garage, a hybrid car may not be well suited for everyone. Here are some pros and cons of hybrid vehicles that will help you decide on your next purchase:
PRO: Better Fuel Economy and Lower Running Costs
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the advantages of choosing a hybrid car is fuel savings. With fuel costs rising, for many prospective car buyers, having a fuel-efficient vehicle is high on the list of priorities. Thanks to the presence of the battery providing better fuel efficiency than you'd normally find in traditional gas-powered cars, a self-charging hybrid (such as the Toyota Corolla Hybrid) can easily achieve 50 mpg, and a plug-in hybrid (such as the Hyundai Tucson PHEV) can push that figure up to 80 MPGe. This is especially true if you have a short, city-based commute at low speeds since many hybrid vehicles are capable of fully electric driving for shorter trips, making your car even more fuel-efficient overall.
CON: More Expensive Up-Front Than Traditional, Gas-Powered Cars
The running and fueling costs of a hybrid vehicle may be lower than those of a conventional car, but there almost definitely will be a higher upfront cost. Even a used hybrid car will typically cost more than its internal combustion engine-only counterparts, thanks to the high cost of the rare metals needed for battery technology. Thankfully, this higher upfront cost will likely be offset after a few years of ownership since you'll save money in the long run when it comes to fuel and maintenance.
This will change as hybrid cars proliferate automakers' lineups as the default option, and like all technology, the more widely it becomes available, the more affordable it becomes.
PRO: Avoid EV Range Anxiety
The range anxiety issue that typically plagues electric car users is eliminated when driving a hybrid vehicle: no matter what your driving habits, from work commutes to long-distance road trips, you can always rely on being able to fill up your car with gas as you would do with conventional cars. Plug-in hybrids even give you the best of both worlds. If you live within a short commute of work, you can easily live an EV lifestyle, relying only on gas when you aren't able to charge or need to drive long distances.
CON: Needs Both Charging and Refueling
Of course, when away from home, filling up at a gas station will get you from A to B in a pinch, but for everyday use, it is important not to neglect the charging aspect; if the battery in a plug-in hybrid is left uncharged, the benefit of higher fuel efficiency is negated, and the vehicle becomes a heavier, less efficient gas-powered car, often with hampered performance. This has become prevalent where buyers have bought PHEVs for the tax benefits and driven them around on gas power alone.
PRO: Well Suited to City Driving
If your driving habits typically involve short city journeys, then a hybrid could be the perfect choice for you: with its potential for all-electric driving, lower tailpipe emissions, and lower maintenance costs hybrids can make excellent city runabouts. At low speeds and with low throttle loads, the electric motors handle most of your propulsion needs. Combustion cars typically at their least efficient when idling and creeping in traffic, and it's in these circumstances that a hybrid excels, switching off the combustion engine and using its electric reserves.
CON: Less Effective on Long-Distance Journeys
Long-distance drivers, on the other hand, might struggle more with hybrid ownership. Hybrids are not always aimed at being more efficient at higher speeds, so their benefit at highway speeds is often entirely negated. We won't say they're worse than a non-hybrid, but the price you pay may not be rewarded if this is the type of driving you do the most.
PRO: Performance Benefits
Hybrids are traditionally seen as environmentally friendly, often assumed to mean reduced performance. However, the addition of electrical augmentation actually means the potential for enhanced performance. Electricity produces more efficient horsepower and greater torque than a combustion motor right from a single rpm. Electric motors can be used as torque-fill to mitigate turbo lag and enhance performance when the torque from a combustion motor is weak. The new Toyota Prus, for example, is as quick in a straight line as a GR86.
CON: Battery Life Expectancy
All batteries lose capacity and start to degrade with regular use, and the battery pack of a hybrid car is no exception: if you have owned your car for a few years or bought a used vehicle, you may start noticing the battery lasting less and less in between charges. Battery tech is getting better, and long manufacturer warranties do ensure replacement in most circumstances, but as more hybrids populate the used car market, this is still something to be aware of.
Outside of warranty, replacement batteries are notoriously expensive. The upside is that a hybrid can still operate as a normal gas car when the battery is no longer effective, meaning it isn't bricked entirely.
PRO: Less Maintenance Needed
Battery replacements aside, hybrid cars may require less day-to-day maintenance than conventional vehicles: in a car with a regenerative braking system, the brake pads will usually wear down at a lower rate, requiring less frequent replacement. The engines often strain less, too, and runs less per 100 miles when electric driving is a factor, again reducing wear.
CON: Higher Repair Costs
The routine maintenance of a hybrid car is slightly different from that of a conventional ICE-only vehicle, and not all mechanics specialize in hybrid cars. While typical maintenance of the engine remains unchanged, and the battery and electric motors don't require a lot of maintenance in general, when something goes wrong with the hybrid systems, a regular mechanic may not be able to do what needs to be done. In these instances, higher repair costs due to specialist workshops are a reality, or at least workshops where mechanics have undergone hybrid-specific training.
PRO: Lower Emissions
And lastly, onto the environmental aspect: with the aid of electric power and more efficient fuel consumption, hybrids will almost always produce lower tailpipe emissions than exclusively gas-powered cars, so if emissions are an important factor to you, a hybrid car might just be the right choice.
CON: Still Uses Gas
Whether you're an electric evangelist or a combustion die-hard, the science is impossible to refute that an electric vehicle is a far more efficient means of propulsion than burning gasoline to power the wheels. While there is no such thing as a zero-emissions vehicle, hybrid vehicles get closer to that mark. Still, they are not as efficient as electric cars, and for some people, the concept of still using gas is a big no. However, because of their smaller batteries, an argument could be made that they have a lesser environmental impact at a supply chain level.
Yeah, we'll admit this isn't the strongest con out there, but for some, any gas at all is a negative.
