Should you buy a hybrid car? Here’s what you need to know

As sales of electric vehicles fail to live up to some expectations, hybrids have taken off. Here are answers to the questions many car buyers have.

The Toyota C-HR hybrid. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

A year ago, the car industry was nearly unanimous in its message: Electric vehicles are the future and will take over the market sooner than you think.

Now that optimism seems to have been premature. Although carmakers continue to roll out new EV models – those that run entirely on batteries and lack a petrol-powered engine – their sales growth has slowed dramatically as consumers aren’t snapping them up as quickly as the industry expected. Unsold EVs are piling up on dealer lots despite price cuts.

What happened? Many people worry that the shortage of public charging stations and limited EV driving range could leave them stranded with a dead battery. Once you find a charger, it takes vastly more time to refill batteries than a petrol tank. And most EVs still cost more than similar petrol-engine cars.

Instead, more buyers seeking to trim their petrol bill or lower their contribution to greenhouse gases are turning to hybrid technology: hybrid vehicles, which combine batteries and an electric motor with a conventional internal combustion engine.

But how practical are these models? Will buyers save money? And which hybrid variation is best? Below, we answer these questions and others.

How do hybrid cars work?

In most hybrid vehicles, both the petrol engine and an electric motor or motors can power the wheels. The engine also turns a generator that creates electricity. The electricity feeds into a battery pack, which in turn provides juice to the motor.

In addition, most hybrids recharge the battery in another way: when you take your foot off the accelerator or hit the brakes, the car reverses the direction of the electric motor, which both slows the vehicle and turns the motor into a generator to create electricity. This process is called regenerative braking. But this type of hybrid, the most common variation, cannot be plugged in to charge the battery.

Sophisticated electronics figure out whether the engine or motor – or both simultaneously in some models – should propel the vehicle at any time.

That sounds complicated. What’s the point?

Hybrids get more kilometres per litre of petrol because they aren’t burning fuel all the time – the engine can shut off while the battery and electric motor do the work, typically when travelling at lower speeds, coasting on the highway or in stop-and-go driving. Moreover, because the motor can assist the petrol engine, the engine can be less powerful than in a similar petrol-only car and thus more fuel-efficient.

How much better mileage does a hybrid get than a regular petrol-powered car?

It can be dramatically better, about 40 per cent more on average than petrol-only vehicles.

The most efficient Toyota Camry hybrid sedan gets 21km a litre in combined city and highway driving, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency – almost 63 per cent more than the most efficient non-hybrid Camry. The hybrid Hyundai Tucson Limited SUV is about 32 per cent better than the non-hybrid.

Are there other advantages to hybrids?

Many accelerate more quickly than their petrol-powered equivalents. And they are quieter in low-speed driving when they run only on battery power. “They tend to drive a little nicer than their (petrol-only) counterparts,” says Alex Knizek, manager of auto testing and insights at Consumer Reports. And despite their more complicated innards they can be more reliable than similar petrol-powered vehicles, Knizek adds.

The dashboard of a Toyota C-HR. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

Moreover, unlike with an EV, “there is no change in the consumer experience”, says Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “I don’t have to worry about charging, or range anxiety.”

So what’s not to love about a hybrid?

Most cost more than petrol-engine models, though they are less expensive than fully electric cars. For example, the base price of the Honda CR-V Hybrid is about 15 per cent higher than that of the petrol-only CR-V. But that price premium is falling as the cost of hybrids’ batteries and other components has declined, and that is expected to continue.

Any other disadvantages to hybrids?

This isn’t necessarily a disadvantage but a quirk: They get better mileage in city driving than on highways – the opposite of petrol-engine-only cars.

For instance, the Lexus RX hybrid goes about 10 per cent further per litre in the city than on the highway. So if most of your daily driving is on an a freeway, you won’t see the same efficiency benefit as people doing mostly stop-and-go driving.

What’s behind the lower highway efficiency?

The engine usually runs most of the time on the highway, using petrol, since the electric motor by itself isn’t powerful enough to maintain high speeds.

Can I earn back a hybrid’s price premium through petrol savings?

Many owners can, depending on how long they keep the car and particularly if they do a lot of stop-and-go driving. It is reported that the average payback period is four years when the vehicle is driven about 20,000km a year. The more you drive or the more expensive the petrol, the sooner the payback.

So should I consider a hybrid even if I do mainly highway driving?

Possibly, because most of them get better highway mileage than a similar petrol-only vehicle. But your payback period could be much longer than for other types of drivers.

I’m confused by the “plug-in hybrids” some carmakers sell. What are they?

Plug-in hybrids, which the industry calls PHEVs, also combine a petrol engine with an electric motor or motors. But their battery pack is much larger and so holds more electricity. And unlike a regular hybrid, you can plug them into a wall outlet or public charger to refill the battery, just as with an EV.

What’s the advantage of plug-in hybrids?

The added battery capacity means they can travel a certain distance on the electric motor only, ranging from 25km to 80km depending on the model. So around town or on short trips it can seem like driving an EV, with its silent ride and no exhaust emissions. When the battery is almost depleted, the petrol engine takes over and they operate like a regular hybrid, so there’s no worry about getting stranded.

The electric driving range means they can get greater petrol mileage during a trip than an ordinary hybrid, but that depends on the length of the trip – a shorter drive takes more advantage of the petrol-free range before the engine starts up – and whether it’s city or highway driving. Plugging them in at public chargers from time to time while on the road also boosts the mileage. That efficiency is one reason carmakers plan to build more of them.

Are there drawbacks to plug-in hybrids?

Yes. Most cost more than regular hybrids and in very cold weather a plug-in is likely to run out of battery power faster than the stated range, the same shortcoming that affects EVs.

Plus, once you deplete the battery, you might get lower mileage than a regular hybrid, especially in highway driving. That’s because the extra batteries plug-ins weigh much more, eating up more fuel than an ordinary hybrid when in petrol-engine-only mode.

What else should I know about plug-ins?

The plug-in feature brings the same charging issues EV owners face: you need access to a charging station and it can take 12 hours or so to completely recharge the battery.

Moreover, you have to remember to plug it in – anecdotal evidence suggests some plug-in owners don’t bother, since the cars run fine on petrol. Of course, that means you won’t see the full petrol savings, so the price premium you paid might have been wasted.

Given their higher price, who should consider a plug-in hybrid?

It depends on several factors. Do you have a place to plug one in where you live or work? Does your daily car use generally fall within the battery-driving range, or close to it, which will speed up the payback of the added car yard price? And do you live in an area with moderate electricity prices but high petrol prices, which also makes the return on your investment come quicker?

Some carmakers offer “mild hybrids”. What are they?

These vehicles have a smaller electric motor and battery pack than regular hybrids, which they use almost entirely to supplement the power of the petrol engine rather than propel the car independently. Some can shut off the engine while you slow the car and run briefly on the battery, and use regenerative braking to recharge the battery, like a hybrid. And in vehicles with a start-stop feature that cuts the engine while at a red light, the car resumes driving on battery power for a short period before the engine restarts. These features can raise the vehicle’s kilometres-per-litre rating.

What are the downsides of mild hybrids?

They can’t drive solely with the motor except intermittently, which means they don’t offer the quiet and lively driving of a regular or plug-in hybrid in battery-only mode. And they don’t provide anywhere near the petrol efficiency of these hybrids.

So what is better for the environment, driving any type of hybrid or an EV?

It’s complicated. While hybrids use less petrol overall than regular petrol-only cars, and thus put out fewer greenhouse emissions, they still pollute while in petrol-engine mode. Some environmental groups have pushed back on carmakers that promote the green advantages of hybrids. EVs, by contrast, emit no pollution themselves. But the electricity used to charge their batteries could come from coal-fired or gas-fired power plants that contribute to global warming, so in effect they aren’t totally clean either in those cases.

The Wall Street Journal.