Choosing a car earlier was a simple task when extraordinary technologies were not discovered. Previously cars were designed as small, medium or large and sometimes a sports car. Nowadays, the car buyers are aware of all the technologies and therefore, have a variety of options from city cars to SUVs and crossovers.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the relatively new “hybrid” classification. In automotive terms, the word 'hybrid' has no hard and fast definition and different manufacturers have taken different approaches but generally speaking, a hybrid car makes use of two different power sources in order to increase efficiency. Many manufacturers now offer hybrid models but the buyer needs to know exactly what “hybrid” means in each case.
Some of the hybrid cars are as follows:
- The first hybrid type car is powered by conventional internal combustion engines but with additional power available when needed from electric motors. Such cars travel for a mile or two.
- The plug-in hybrids are fitted with substantial batteries and, as the name suggests, these are recharged at home. Such cars can travel around twenty or thirty miles with its longer electric power. At times, the main petrol or diesel engine will be used with additional electric power whenever required.
- The third less common type is the “range-extender”. This in practice is an electric vehicle and the small internal combustion engines only function is to charge the car’s batteries as required.
Some of the common hybrid cars are Toyota Yaris, Toyota Prius, BMW i3 Range-extender, Mitsubishi Outlander, Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid, Mercedes S300 Hybrid and much more.
The true cost of owning any car includes many hidden factors such as depreciation rates and interest charges but for those choosing an eco-friendly lifestyle, the vast choice of hybrid cars now available means that the option of going green is no longer exclusively reserved for tree-hugging hippies.