Hybrid Cars are a Rip-Off and the People Who Buy Them Can’t Do Math.
November 25, 2007 By Matthew Paulson
Buying a hybrid car seems to the in thing to do these days. There’s this false notion that buying a hybrid vehicle is a great way to take proactive steps to decrease our dependency on foreign oil and that they’ll save you money in the long run because you use less gasoline. The reality is that you or even you and 1,000 of your neighbors buying a hybrid car won’t decrease our foreign oil dependency by any reasonable amount and the lower price per gallon you pay will never make-up the huge premium you’ll pay for a hybrid car.
Honda is selling their 2008 Honda Civic Sedan for $15,010 MSRP. The hybrid version of that vehicle, the ’08 Civic Hybrid Sedan retails for $22,600. For that extra $7,600 dollars, you’ll get an extra 11 miles per gallon of fuel economy. You might think that going from 34 MPG to 45 MPG would make a big difference, but the reality is that you would only use 72 more gallons of gasoline per year in the non-hybrid. If you were to drive an average of 10,000 miles per year and gasoline was at a fixed price of $3.00 a gallon, you would have to drive your new civic hybrid for a whopping 35 years before the cost would break even!
Out of all of the oil that the United States uses, it imports 58% of it from foreign countries. That’s a whopping 12 million barrels of oil imported each day. You can get around 18 useable gallons of gasoline from each barrel. The rest of that oil is used to create heating oil and other oil based products. That means we’re importing 78.8 billion gallons of gasoline each year. The 72 gallons that you would save a year are a drop in a very large bucket. Even if 1 million Americans chose a hybrid for their next vehicle, it would only decrease foreign oil dependency by less than 1%.
Switching to hybrid cars is not going to do anything particularly amazing to help the environment and won’t even be a drop in the bucket when it comes to reducing foreign oil dependence. Buying one won’t do your pocketbook any favors either. Until the technology develops to a point where the price between a hybrid model and a traditional gasoline engine becomes much lower, purchasing a hybrid vehicle just isn’t worth it.
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November 25th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
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November 26th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
stfu. as more people buy hybrids the price will come down as anything does, & do the math for when everyone is using hybrids…
November 26th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
…which means that they won’t be a good choice until enough dumb sheep make present-day bad economic decisions to bring the economies of scale down.
i’ll wait.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:36 am
1. The point is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are directly tied to gallons burned.
2. At 10mpg difference at 15,000 miles/yr (a standard measure) it is 95 gallons.
3. If all small cars sold in 1 year were 10mpg better it would be over 190 million gallons. (Not to mention all of the other autos.)
4. Life isn’t just about saving money. It is myopic to think this.
5. How many people who put out this financial theory drive vehicles that get lousy gas mileage? The last guy who told me this drove a dualie Chevy with a 454.
Btw I drive an AWD SUV. But I do respect the people who put their money where their mouth is. Even if I don’t. LOL
December 1st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
15,000 miles per year?! That would work out to about 60 miles per day, 5 days a week!
You want to really cut back on fuel emissions? Move closer to work!
December 10th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
This article takes a flawed and simplistic approach to the economics of hybrids. The truth is, as with most anything, that your ‘mileage will vary’ depending on your particular needs and circumstances. Here’s a hybrid calculator that demonstrates that hybrids can indeed save money under many common circumstances:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/hev_calculator/single.php
January 10th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Actually, there are a lot of other factors that go into whether you will break even or not. For instance, will you be eligible for the federal tax credit? What about state tax breaks (for those of you who live in states that offer them)? Are you eligible to drive in the carpool lane (time = money = gas sitting in traffic)? Some insurance companies offer discounts to those who buy hybrid cars. What about resale value? Hybrid car resale value is currently a lot higher than non-hybrid cars. etc….
January 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I forgot to mention the maintenance costs. Hybrids cost just as much as regular cars to maintain on average.
I’ve seen studies showing that time to break even varies (depends on the hybrid car you pick), but does occur within 3 to 5 years for full hybrids, up to 7 years for mild hybrids.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:50 am
They might not do much right now, but they will in the future. There is always a first time for everything, and the more people start doing something about it now, the faser we will see results, and new things will come out. Like the Chevy volt, great idea for a car, and I am surethey will keep improving til the day where we will not have to use petroleum again.