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Hybrid vehicles
Oct. 18th, 2007 05:23 pmHybrid? Or Hype-ridden?
I don't dispute the idea that hybrid vehicles can get more out of a gallon of gas than similar traditional engine vehicles. Some are getting 40 to 50 mpg, or maybe more. But at a much higher vehicle cost, in general.
Here's a case study: The 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid gets an EPA rated city value of 40mpg, and 45 highway. It's sibling, the 2008 Civic LX (manual transmission) Sedan gets 26 city, 34 highway. The Automatic transmission is 25/36.
For 12000 miles, at $3 per gallon, using highway figures, that's $800 per year for gas for the hybrid, $1059 for the LX. A substantial savings, certainly, but the LX manual sedan lists for $16,960 and the hybrid $22,600. Saving $259 per year, it would take more than two decades for it to pay for itself, based on gas alone.
Despite this, I love hybrid technology. Why? Because it has brought focus (no Ford pun intended) to the need for fuel conservation in a way considered "hip" and "cool." Because suddenly, people who might were looking at a sports car will buy a hybrid that gets twice the gas mileage. Doubtless, as more hybrids are made, the technology will get cheaper, and the fuel savings better. For now, though, I'm sticking with my regular Civic.
A little Honda Civic trivia. When I was younger, I used to joke that the Honda Civic was originall called the CVCC, a name expressing the size of it's incredibly tiny engine, only 105 cc displacement. That was, of course, wrong. The original Hondas in this country (1973) were called Civics, and had a 50hp engine with 1169 cc displacement. A 1974 model had a slightly better engine, the "Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion" (CVCC) engine, which had 1488 cc displacement, and provided 53 horsepower. Even in 1973, the little engine was able to propel the Civic 40 miles per gallon. Not bad, eh?
I don't dispute the idea that hybrid vehicles can get more out of a gallon of gas than similar traditional engine vehicles. Some are getting 40 to 50 mpg, or maybe more. But at a much higher vehicle cost, in general.
Here's a case study: The 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid gets an EPA rated city value of 40mpg, and 45 highway. It's sibling, the 2008 Civic LX (manual transmission) Sedan gets 26 city, 34 highway. The Automatic transmission is 25/36.
For 12000 miles, at $3 per gallon, using highway figures, that's $800 per year for gas for the hybrid, $1059 for the LX. A substantial savings, certainly, but the LX manual sedan lists for $16,960 and the hybrid $22,600. Saving $259 per year, it would take more than two decades for it to pay for itself, based on gas alone.
Despite this, I love hybrid technology. Why? Because it has brought focus (no Ford pun intended) to the need for fuel conservation in a way considered "hip" and "cool." Because suddenly, people who might were looking at a sports car will buy a hybrid that gets twice the gas mileage. Doubtless, as more hybrids are made, the technology will get cheaper, and the fuel savings better. For now, though, I'm sticking with my regular Civic.
A little Honda Civic trivia. When I was younger, I used to joke that the Honda Civic was originall called the CVCC, a name expressing the size of it's incredibly tiny engine, only 105 cc displacement. That was, of course, wrong. The original Hondas in this country (1973) were called Civics, and had a 50hp engine with 1169 cc displacement. A 1974 model had a slightly better engine, the "Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion" (CVCC) engine, which had 1488 cc displacement, and provided 53 horsepower. Even in 1973, the little engine was able to propel the Civic 40 miles per gallon. Not bad, eh?
