If you're trying to go Green Cars that use Hybrid Technologies can be a Bad Idea

When the hybrid car revolution started out, people just took these cars on face value. If you wanted to go green, cars that used hybrid technology were obviously the way to go - they were specifically engineered to use gas more frugally. What was not to like about them? What could be better than the 40 mpg that the Prius was badged for? Well, in all kinds of ways, if you're trying to go green, cars that use hybrid technologies can be a bad idea.

We aren't really talking about inefficient hybrids like the Nissan Altima Hybrid or the Camry Hybrid either. The Prius, the granddaddy of them all, while it does actually deliver 40 mpg, only does that driving in a crowded city. On the highway, it's a completely different story.

Now this is the complete opposite of what it is with every other regular car. With any ordinary car, you get the best mpg ratings on the highway where the car can keep going smoothly without hindrance. In the city, as the engine in any regular car needs to keep working at a high basic RPM just to keep working, it needs to waste a lot of gas. On the Prius or any hybrid though, in stop-and-go traffic, the electric motor either takes over completely or it assists the gas engine all the time. In city traffic, the Prius and other hybrids like it are definitely very efficient.  On the highway on the other hand, they get no assistance from their puny electric motors and they have to depend entirely on their gasoline engines. And they become less efficient than your standard gas powered modern car. The Prius on the highway is far less efficient than a Corolla.

If you want to go green, cars that use hybrid technology are not a no-brainer. You have to think long and hard about what kind of use you'll put your car to. Now why on earth is spectacular technology like the hybrid system used on the Prius not good for the highway? Well, to begin with, a hybrid engine is only any use at very low speeds. At normal speeds, the electric motor just doesn't kick in. The electric motor and the big fat battery pack do sit in the car all the time though. And those highway speeds, all that is just so much dead weight that isn't good for anything. Your internal combustion engine has to work that much harder to lug all that dead weight around on the highway. Of course, it's going to be less efficient.

Hybrids make great sense for taxis and town buses that putter about town at low speeds stopping and starting all the time. They make no sense whatsoever for people who need to travel on freeways and highways regularly. Not to mention, if your reason for choosing a hybrid is that you wish to save the environment, hybrids really aren't the way to go. Those batteries are an environmental hazard. Their manufacture requires nickel that comes from a terrbly environmentally unfriendly mining process. And batteries are a nightmare to dispose of once you're done with them in eight years.