Because of rising fuel costs and the environmental damage caused by an excess of carbon dioxide emissions, car owners are looking for alternatives. Oil prices continue to rise and its supply continues to dwindle. This is one reason why some people are interested on owning a hybrid car.

Hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular as time goes by. And as the technology improves, hybrid cars become more affordable. It will not be long before we begin to see that most cars on the road are hybrids.

Hybrid Cars are Gas Savers

The most obvious advantage of driving a hybrid car is that you consume less fuel while driving. The combination of an electric motor and gas engine allows the hybrid car to go further than the conventional car can. per each gallon – an average of 30 miles per gallon, to be specific. You might observe that a hybrid car is quiet when not in motion. The reason for this is that its gasoline engine shuts off automatically once the car stops moving, and this saves on fuel. Once a driver steps on the accelerator pedal, the gasoline engine will turn on.

Hybrid Cars are Good to the Environment

A hybrid car emits a lower amount of pollution and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as compared to an average gasoline powered car. This makes it friendlier to the environment because it produces less pollution.

2000-2003 Toyota Prius photographed in USA.
Image via Wikipedia

The Toyota Prius, for example, was tested and found to produce ninety percent less tailpipe emissions and as much as a fifty percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Hybrid Cars Equal Savings

In 2005, former President Bush signed an agreement that provides tax relief for hybrid car buyers. There are two factors which the amount of the incentive was to be based on:

  1. First, the hybrid car’s fuel efficiency was to be compared to a conventional car in 2002 with the same weight class.
  2. The second factor is the amount of gasoline the hybrid car would save over its lifetime, as compared to its equivalent in a conventional car.

A Honda Accord Hybrid Car is entitled to $600 worth of tax credits, while the Toyota Prius is entitled to $3,150. Most tax credits for hybrid cars expire after 2010.

Hybrid car manufacturers continue to research for ways to reduce fuel consumption, and for better fuel efficiency. Once the hybrids begin to be produced in volume for the mass-market, one can expect the costs to be lower than they are today.