There are many disadvantages of hybrid electric vehicles. First of all,
hybrid electric vehicles are not all-electric vehicles. They do
require gasoline to drive.
Hybrid electric vehicles use regenerative braking to get their
electricity. The gas energy is captured off of the brakes and stored as
electricity. All electric vehicles are a much better alternative in terms of
cutting down smog. There are several available today.
Hybrid electric vehicles are also inferior to hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles. Many automotive companies are working on hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles in production now. Very soon Chevy will come out with a hydrogen fuel
cell vehicle.
While hybrid electric vehicles are low smog emission vehicles, they do
produce emissions. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produce water as their
emission, making them far superior to hybrid electric vehicles. Or
better yet take public transportation in a city that uses hydrogen fuel cell
buses.
Although hybrid electric vehicles are readily available, they are a
large investment. There are sometimes $10,000 difference in between a
hybrid car and a subcompact although the mile per gallon difference could
be only a few miles freeway miles. This is an investment that might not
be immediately recaptured in gas savings.
Of course, hybrid vehicles are not ideal for freeway drivers. The
reason is because hybrid electric vehicles use regenerative breaking. If
most of the miles put on the car are on the freeway, there is less braking
involved and less regeneration of electricity involved.
Another disadvantage of hybrid electric vehicles is some models are
very difficult to obtain. They are heavily advertised and there is a heavy
demand. But many automotive manufacturers are using a showroom car to
lure customers into the showroom to see a hybrid that there is a long
waiting list for. Customers needing a car now and not six months from
now end up buying a gas guzzling SUV because the hybrid SUV is not yet
readily available.
A large disadvantage of hybrid electric vehicles is they give auto
manufacturers a chance to tell the state and federal governments that they
are doing something to lower vehicle emissions. Then car manufacturers
insist that the government has no reason to bully the manufacturers to
make cars with reasonable miles per gallon rates of say 100 miles per
gallon. Hybrid cars are a smoke screen for the car manufacturers to
pretend they care about the environment.
Finally, hybrid electric vehicles are available only to the most elite
car buyers creating a disparity between rich communities and poor
communities. Poor cities have drivers creating lots of emissions in old
eight cylinder cars while rich cities have rich citizens driving expensive
hybrid electric vehicles with low emissions. Probably the biggest
disadvantage of hybrid electric vehicles is that they are cost prohibitive
to the poor.
