Plug-In Hybrid Cars

The latest and hottest thing in hybrids is plug in hybrids. All hybrids use a gas powered generator to charge batteries that then power an electric motor, which is what actually drives the car. A plug in hybrid, as you might be able to guess from the name, is a hybrid that you can actually plug in to your house power to charge up the battery.

Even though electric prices have risen lately, just like the prices of virtually everything else, it’s still substantially cheaper to use the electricity in your home to power a car. In fact, depending on how far you have to drive between chargings, you can get up to four times greater fuel efficiency.

That’s not a typo. Four times. Equivalent to getting 100 miles to the gallon in a regular car. Unfortunately, plug in hybrids haven’t gone into general production yet, but they’re around the corner. The models should be available in a year or two, and they should be cheap enough to be practical.

So you like the idea of saving gas with a hybrid car, but you don’t want to give up your current sweet ride. Does saving gas and saving the environment necessarily means buying a car you don’t really want or giving up a car you love. Not necessarily. Aftermarket kits are becoming available that can convert any car into a hybrid.

These kits are available from a number of specialty companies, and virtually any car can be converted into a plug in hybrid. This is easiest and cheapest when used on cars that are already hybrids. For conventional cars, you’re looking at a ten thousand dollar expense.

Ten grand is a good chunk of change, so you have to wonder if the expense is worth it. That’s not an easy question to answer, because it depends on a bunch of factors. Are you the kind of person who needs a new car every year? Do you only drive fairly short distances?

Then it’s probably not for you. The expense will never pay for itself. Now it might be worth it if you want to do your part in helping out the environment, but as a money saver, it’s just not worth it.

On the other hand, if you tend to drive a car until the wheels fall off or you drive a long way every day, or both, it might well be worth the expense. If you drive 100 miles day five days a week, the savings will pay for the modifications in less than three years.

The prices for all of the technology keep going down, and the price of gas keeps going up, so having a car you plug in like your blender is the sort of thing you’ll need to be keeping an eye on.