Why Buy a Hybrid Vehicle Now
As the automotive world shifts away from gas-powered vehicles and towards alternates, drivers have to start making choices about what they want. These choices come with weighing the positives and negatives of current vehicle types. For many, they’re likely to come to the conclusion that the right vehicle to check out today comes with a hybrid powertrain. But why are so many drivers coming to that conclusion?
Hybrids are Efficient
We all like saving money at the pump. While modern gasoline-powered engines are getting great gas mileage – particularly when turbocharged – there’s still better! Most hybrid SUVs get at least 35 miles per gallon, and hybrid sedans generally get 45 miles per gallon or more. Plenty even top 50 miles per gallon! These numbers are, on average, 25%-40% better than their gasoline-powered counterparts, with some – like these named by Motortrend as The Fuel Economy Elite – eclipsing that.
Hybrids are Easy to Use
While purely electric vehicles are more efficient than hybrid vehicles, they’re nowhere near as convenient!
You may get 300-400 miles of all-electric range from an EV, but you’ll need to make sure to have a place to plug it in. This may even include getting a dedicated power outlet at your house – and good luck if you only have on-street parking! If you’re making a lengthy road trip, you’ll be handcuffed to routes where you can quickly access electric chargers. And you’ll have to wait around for your car to charge – plan on taking long breaks, with even some of the fastest-charging EVs needing up to 30 minutes for even an 80% recharge.
A hybrid is not handcuffed to any specific route, and fuels up at any gas pump, recharging as you go. Plug-in hybrids might need to be plugged in from time to time, but don’t need that cord pulled out every stop to recharge, so can be parked anywhere there’s a spot.
Hybrids are Better to Drive
Hybrid vehicles use electric power for that immediate torque, shifting over to the gasoline engine for power as speed increases. This means there is more immediate power than gas-only vehicles, and smoother low-end shifting. Once they shift over to that gasoline power as speed increases, you’ll get to enjoy easy cruising and top end shifting.
Hybrids are Affordable
Fully electric vehicles have a lot of expenses that come with them – particularly when repairs start to get factored in. Yes, they’ll save you plenty at the pump but their sticker price can take a while to pay back.
Hybrids, however, can return those savings really quickly as the MSRP prices start to come closer to their fuel-powered counterparts. As Consumer Reports notes, plenty of 2023 hybrid models are priced extremely close to their gas-powered brethren, with some being identically priced. This means you get a fuel savings return possibly as soon as your first fill-up! In many other cases, it’s a matter of a year or two of average driving until you’ve saved enough at the pump to break even from the sticker price differences.
Better yet, this all comes without the expensive repair costs that can catch up to you in an electric vehicle. Sure, EVs don’t have the oil changes and some other maintenance costs. In fact, as AAA notes, an EV costs on average $330 less than a gas-powered car to maintain annually. However, major repairs are major – if the electric battery goes, that can run from $5000 to $15000 to replace. The smaller electrical parts in hybrids are cheaper and easier to replace.
Hybrids Offer Great Options
Electric vehicles are still fairly limited, particularly if you want to stick to the previous point of affordability! But almost every vehicle category out there has hybrid power in it, from trucks, to supercars, to minivans, to compact sedans. Within those categories, there are plenty of hybrid options. This means that you can find pretty much whatever you’re looking for with a hybrid powertrain! Need to tow? Need to haul 7 people? Just need a little city commuter? There’s a hybrid for it!
Smart to Buy a Hybrid?
Buying a hybrid now is possibly the smartest move you can make, for so many reasons. They are no longer on the outside – the hybrid powertrain is mainstream, and is very likely to become the dominant powertrain within the next decade. So consider your hybrid options at Bobby Rahal Honda of State College when you start your next new car search!