Hybrid Cars

As I was driving back to State College from Thanksgiving break, I saw an increased number of hybrid cars on the road and it makes me wonder how much of an effect they really have on the consumer and the environment. I would think that the effect on the consumer is a positive one, as they never really have to pay for gas, they can simply just recharge their car, and when it dies they can use the gas reserve in the back of the car. In my findings, it is clear that hybrid cars have a clear positive effect on consumers, and a surprisingly negative effect on the environment.

Everyone is trying to save as much money as possible, and according to a few studies done, purchasing a hybrid car will save you money over an extended period of time. The first study is done by NerdWallet in which they examined, over 27 cities, the cost over 5 years that consumers paid for their cars. They looked at those with Toyota Camry’s, a gas powered car, and those with a Toyota Prius, a hybrid. The study tracked the participants maintenance done on the car, repairs, insurance, and fuel. These prices were all added to the MSRP of the given car. The picture below shows a just a few of the cities and the results that the study was able to find. The study also kept track of totally electric cars, which seemed to be by far the cheapest option, but for the case of this blog, I am only focusing on what was found between hybrid cars and gas cars. It can be seen in the chart that consumers are saving anywhere from $1000 to $2500 on overall price, and in no city does it cost more over 5 years to own a gas vehicle than a gas one.

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A study done at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology shows the impact that these hybrid cars have on the environment. The researchers looked at how the total life of the cars affects the Earth, from production to the cars end. The study found that the “production phase of electric vehicles proved substantially more environmentally intensive.” They compared the production of these cars to that of gas cars and found that the global warming potential of the part electric cars is around two times as much as regular gas cars. They also went on to say that the production of many materials used in electric cars such as batteries and electric motors

uses a lot of materials that are toxic to the environment. These materials are those like copper and nickel. The rest of their study talks about the affect the cars have on consumers, which gives the same results as the previously discussed study.

To me the affects of hybrid vehicles are definitely positive overall. Consumers are saving a very large amount of money, which is really what everyone wants. The overall affect of the cars on the environment may be negative in some aspects, but there are definitely some positives. In a long period of time, I found hybrid cars to be a more cost effective car than gas powered ones.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19830232

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/auto/electric-hybrid-gas-how-they-compare-costs-2015/

3 thoughts on “Hybrid Cars

  1. Pingback: How Much Liability Auto Insurance Should I Have | Car Ins Quotes

  2. dsd5190

    Great post. You brought up a lot of good points and presented a pretty non-bias view. I have a few insights to offer because my parents have two hybrids. I figured out roughly how much they save on gas each year by only driving two hybrids, and it came out to the high single digit thousands. I thought hybrids were sort of outlandish and I wasn’t a fan of them until I realized this. I realized that families and people around the world could save a good amount of money in the long run by investing in a hybrid.

  3. Kendra Hepler

    Hybrid cars definitely carry a reputation of being not as focused on design and performance, rather simply the ability to get from point A to point B, while doing less damage on the environment of course. Because of this, I found it interesting when I learned that there are now several high-end “hypercars” utilize hybrid technologies. This article from Practical Motoring notes how the Ferrari La Ferrari, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1 all operate as hybrid cars, however, “not for efficiency but for performance.” Perhaps as hybrids become more involved in upscale automobiles, they will catch on with more of the population, not just those who consider themselves “green”.

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