Hybrid Cars: Fuel Economy Cars?

As of today, a game is being played. A game called “confronting the US oil crisis”, with the major players being the government, the car manufacturers, and maybe the EPA and the people being the unwitting spectators that are readily lured to the show.

And the game pieces are the fuel economy cars such as hybrid cars.

I begin by stressing I don’t know all the breadth and width of the impeding oil crisis but I know fairly certain that hybrid cars wouldn’t be a prospective solution to the problem – at least for a couple more years.

One of the obvious proofs is the massive influx of hybrid cars in today’s streets that did nothing to dent the oil problem, but instead made a quandary with regards to carpooling. (As early as January 2005, hybrid cars owners have the exemption that allows them to use carpool lanes, even when riding alone. Given the thousands of hybrid cars sold since 1999, carpool lanes are becoming more congested than the regular traffic lanes they are supposed to lighten. )

According to a compiled report for the past eight years made by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the pervasive presence of the supposedly fuel economy cars have saved only a measly total of 5.5 million oil barrels. It’s a rather distressing contrast against the approximate 8.5 million barrels a day to power the present usage of the light, private vehicles. But even then, researchers are very optimistic with regards to fuel economy cars. They have concluded that for fuel economy cars to have an impact, they have to at least cover more than 50% of the car population in the United States. And given the growing sales of these fuel economy cars, it’s just a matter of time.

On a more personal level, can fuel economy cars help you cut back on gasoline consumption? Yes they might, but if you consider the initial cost of today’s hybrids, you might want to reconsider getting one. One of the biggest problems of fuel economy cars is that they take too long to repay the extra expense of acquiring them. Even in the best scenario and the best model (maybe a Toyota Prius) 5 years time is already considered lucky.

So what would be your reasons to get a fuel economy car? Environmental aspects? But whatever it is, don’t buy hybrid cars for purely economic reasons.