How do Hybrid Cars save Money?

Would you be surprised to know that this is the most often asked question about hybrid cars? No, you probably wouldn't, because it's also your first question. And understandably so. I mean, it sure is nice to "go green" and "save the environment" and such, but if you're even remotely human, I reckon the wallet comes first. It certainly does with me: my wife, my children, our mortgage banker and the friendly neigborhood taxation gentlemen - they all insist on this sequence of priorities.

Commercially applied hybrid technology still being fairly new, it's hard to come up with data and figures that are really hewn in stone. Such figures wouldn't do you much good either, because with the speed this stuff evolves, they'd be out of date tomorrow anyway. Luckily the question wasn't how much money hybrid cars can save you, but how do they save money?! That, for a change, is easily answered.

• Firstly, the use of self-charging batteries and related electrical components to propel the car means that the hybrid car uses less fuel.
• Secondly, the internal combustion engine in a hybrid car is much smaller and lighter, and much more eficient than those in a conventional car, using less fuel.
• Thirdly: when the car moves, idles or brakes, the batteries recharge themselves; that's (almost) free energy so: less fuel.

So what it all boils down to is: the more cheap electricity a hybrid car uses from its batteries, the less expensive fuel it uses. It really is that simple: hybrid cars save money because they use less gas.

You may also want to read our page: "The Hybrid Paradox: City versus Highway".

And now or something completely diferent!

The presence of the calculator below seems to contradict what I wrote earlier, to wit that it's hard to come up with more or les exact numbers and figures. However, the little gadget may give you at least some indication of what to expect - but please bear in mind that the whole exercise and its results are for amusement purposes only! As for the Flash itself: it fell off the back of a truck. A hybrid truck, of course (wide grin)! If it happens to have an owner and he wants it back, just holler!