What You Need To Know About Hybrid Cars

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are becoming more popular every day, as well as for good reason: drivers that switch to cars like this have a number of both environmental and financial advantages to look forward to.
ome of the benefits to owning a hybrid car include:

They are environmentally-friendly
You save money
They’re quiet
They often require less maintenance
Hybrid cars are environmentally friendly (compared to gasoline-powered cars)
There are many negative environmental impacts of using gasoline-powered vehicles: for just one, these cars emit co2 and other greenhouse gases straight from their tailpipes. Over time, this can have a sizable effect on the environment: in line with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a typical passenger vehicle emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, plus other pollutants like methane and nitrous oxide – all greenhouse gases that donate to global warming. Even before the gasoline hits your engine, extracting the fuel to use as energy has lots of environmental costs to consider as well.

With hybrid car, you have two options for fuel: gasoline or electricity. If you run your hybrid car solely on gasoline, you’ll still emit greenhouse gases from your tailpipe, but less so than you’ll with gasoline-only counterparts because they’re more fuel-efficient-some hybrids permit more than 50 miles per gallon! This simply means you’ll use less gas to visit the same distance, therefore emit less pollution.

However, if you buy a hybrid, it’s pretty likely that you’ll also use electricity to perform your car, especially if you buy a plug-in hybrid. When doing so, you will have no direct tailpipe emissions. Having said that, how environmentally friendly your commute is in a hybrid car will vary depending on where your electricity arises from: while more and more of our electricity comes from renewables each year, fossil fuels continue to generate the most electricity throughout the country. The source of your electricity (i.e. your electricity mix) impacts your overall transportation emissions, known as well-to-wheel emissions. If you’re curious about what this means for you, check out this tool from the Department of Energy (DOE): they have got an interactive tool that presents the total annual emissions per vehicle according to a state’s electricity mix.

You can save money with a hybrid car
With a hybrid vehicle, you can avoid making frequent trips to the gas station and paying high charges to fill up your tank because of efficient engines and the option to switch to electricity for fuel. However, it could be difficult to estimate the amount of you can save since savings depend heavily on your own driving habits, your reliance on gas for power, your area, and more. For some numbers, look into Edmund’s “Gas Guzzler” calculator: it will help estimate how much it can save you on gas by switching to a hybrid based on your state, your vehicle, and how many miles you drive.

In addition to savings on gasoline, the government currently offers a good tax credit if you purchase a plug-in hybrid vehicle. Depending on your tax status and the type of car you choose, it can save you as much as $7,500 with this incentive. (Note: regular hybrids are not eligible for this incentive). Before you purchase a hybrid car, also check to see if there are any state or local incentives available to help decrease your costs even more.

Hybrid cars are quiet
Hybrid cars are much quieter than traditional gasoline-powered vehicles because of their electric motors. Actually, they’re so quiet that the U.S. were required to pass laws to require both hybrids and electric vehicles to make audible sounds when traveling at certain speeds because of safety concerns.

(Author’s note: perhaps you have seen the episode of The Office where Andy pins Dwight up between the fence and his car? He’s qualified to sneak up and catch him off guard because, as Oscar points out, a Toyota Prius remains completely silent when driven under five miles per hour.)

Hybrid cars often require less maintenance
Because hybrid cars have two resources of power (the gas engine and the electric motor), you can find less regular deterioration on the car’s engine. This often means less need for oil or coolant, and fewer routine maintenance costs than cars that rely solely on combustion fuel engines. Admittedly, maintenance costs may differ with regards to the type of hybrid car you have, so make sure you do somewhat of research on the actual make and model!

You won’t experience “range anxiety” with a hybrid car
One of the biggest downsides of all-electric vehicles is “range anxiety,” or worries that you won’t have a very high enough charge to make the distance from one charging station to another, heightened by having less electric car charging stations in a few areas. You don’t have to worry about this with a hybrid vehicle: whenever your battery runs out of electricity, the auto will switch to using gasoline in your tank-and you will still find plenty of gasoline stations around to refuel!
As the world focuses on being kinder to the surroundings car manufacturers have begun to expand their new car ranges to add hybrid and electric vehicles. You could have noticed there are numerous types of hybrid vehicles available and each work slightly differently.

Deciding which type of electrified car is well suited for you may well be daunting at first but after getting continue reading you will have a better understanding of the key differences, electric charging points, the huge benefits and the cost involved with each type of vehicle available.

Now you have discovered more information about different types of electrified vehicles, their benefits and how they work you will want to explore our comprehensive selection of new and used hybrid and electric cars.