What Is a Hybrid-Electric Vehicle?

		in clean vehicles   California's ZEV program  off-site   Hybrid Electric Vehicles (Dept. of Energy)

Hybrids combine a small combustion engine with an electric motor and battery. The two technologies can be combined to reduce fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. Hybrids capture energy lost during braking and return it to the battery, called "regenerative braking." A hybrid engine also operates more efficiently and produces less pollution than does combustion alone.

What Are the Pros and Cons?

The UCS Hybrid Center: The most comprehensive independent resource on the web for hybrid-electric vehicles.

Air pollution. With good design, hybrids can reduce smog pollution by 90 percent or more compared with the cleanest conventional vehicles on the road today. The Toyota Prius, for example, achieves a 90 percent reduction in smog-forming pollutants over the current national average. Hybrids will never be true zero-emission vehicles, however, because of their internal-combustion engine.

Global-warming pollution. Hybrids consume significantly less fuel than vehicles powered by gasoline alone. The first hybrids on the market will cut emissions of global-warming pollutants by a third to a half. Later models may cut global-warming emissions by even more.

Cost. Hybrids should be competitively priced when all the costs over the life of the vehicle are included. This is because any cost premium is likely to be offset by fuel savings. A federal tax deduction of $2,000 for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle is available in many cases, and some states may provide additional incentives or tax credits to encourage the purchase of hybrid vehicles. 

Performance and range. By combining gasoline with electric power, hybrids will have the same or greater range than traditional combustion engines. Honda's Insight goes about 700 miles on a single tank of gas. The 2003 Toyota Prius is estimated to get 45 miles per gallon in highway driving, and 52 mpg in city driving. For the driver, hybrids offer similar or better performance compared with conventional vehicles. They're fun, they're smooth, and they're responsive.

Market Availability

There are three hybrid cars on the market today: the two-seater Honda Insight, the five-seater Toyota Prius and the five-seater Honda Civic. Other major automakers have announced their intentions to introduce hybrids within the next few years