Hybrids Less Efficient Than Gas Models

Prius butt plug into each other.

My Lexus hybrid self charges with no need to plug in, but it switches from electric to gas often depending on speed and acceleration.

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Don't Prius' self recharge?? Other hybrids not doing that anymore?

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Yes, traditional hybrids work as you stated. That's how they get 50 mpg.

Plug in hybrids are the ones failing.

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Most people are not plugging them in...

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Every hybrid I looked at compared to the gas-only models basically had the same city MPG as the highway MPG of the non-hybrid, but 1 - 2 less highway MPG. Plug-in hybrid is probably good if you only have really short trips regularly, know some areas where the neighborhood is built with grocery store, restaurants, etc. Having to go through the extra step to plug in a charging cable would be a pain, same with having to remove that cable too. I keep my truck plugged in on a battery tender but it goes weeks without being driven, I'm sure there are those keeping their vehicles on block heaters and similar, just extra steps that sometimes get annoying IMO.

Some people here don't know the difference between a plug in hybrid and a regular hybrid. They both have batteries that recharge on deceleration and braking, but the plug in versions have a larger output battery that can provide an all electric range.

They both have their place and are good options depending on your drive. My wife has a plug in hybrid 3row SUV and hasn't filled the tank in almost a month, but she plugs it in every night. One of my cars is a regular hybrid full sized sedan that I bought new 12 years ago. It has 250k miles and still gets 43 mpg.

The non hybrid version of the car got 26 mpg mixed, so a quick estimate is that I have saved about $11,000 in fuel costs. The key was that the car was only $1500 more than the non hybrid version when I bought it.

Aren't there garage floor mats you can park on that will inductivly charge car batteries wirelessly?
No plugging in necessary.

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Don't Prius' self recharge?? Other hybrids not doing that anymore?
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I'm sure they do, but drops efficiency below gas powered as I read it.

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Wait. Let’s get this straight. There are three ways to charge a hybrid. One is that when you brake it uses the electric motor as a generator to charge the battery. The generator torque slows the car relieving the duty on the brakes and capturing efficiency very elegantly. However, this doesn’t amount to a whole lot of charging except when you’re in stop and go traffic.

The second type is that the engine can turn the generator and charge the battery. I doubt this means is being used because it would be terribly inefficient and expensive. The third type is to plug the car into an outlet. And only some hybrids have that capability. These are the hybrids they are talking about here. In these hybrids you can charge your car with your home electricity and get maybe 25 miles of driving before you start using your fuel. But you have to do this every night to get the benefit. If you don’t you still get some benefit from the braking effect, but you lose a lot of that efficiency by having to lug around all of the weight of the electric motor and appurtenances.

If you have that kind of hybrid, you are not charging it overnight, and you drive a lot of highway miles, then that is less efficient than a similar ICE vehicle.

[img]Had a vehicle provided by the company that I worked for and it was a hybrid. No plug in but used deceleration generator to recharge the battery. It would use battery until it needed the ICE. It got about 2 miles per gallon better than the strait ICE version. It worked ok and had it for three years(company policy to replace them after 3 years). It brought less than half the value of the strait ICE version. Battery replacement was so high that no one wanted it.[/img]

Friends had 2 Hybrids. Both ended up with battery problems and their value was zero.