Can someone explain hybrid cars to me, please?

[mousme]

I am Posty McPostalot today!

Here's the deal. I don't understand the concept of hybrid cars, except in the most minimal of ways (they use both electricity and fuel to run: yay!).

So... can someone explain this to me? Or point me to a good web page/resource for them?

Sometime in the not-so-near future, when I move far away from my job, I will likely look into getting one, but only if it makes sense to do so. If I end up spending just as much on gas as I would with a normal car, then it would defeat the purpose of getting a hybrid. Also, maintenance and overall reliabilty/functionality will be a major consideration. If my car spends half the year in the shop, that too will defeat the purpose.

Help?

Comments

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Biggest problem with hybrids: The battery costs $8000 to replace. And like any car battery, it's at the end of its life in 3-4 years. This is one of the reasons why they were off our list.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

How much does a normal car battery cost?

Also, I've never heard of anyone having to replace their car battery after 3-4 years. Do I just know exceptionally lucky people?

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm mistaken in the time? Most of my knowledge in these matters comes from reading repair books about average replacement times, not from owning a car, and it's been a while.

As such, I'll refrain from commenting on how much a regular car battery costs to replace, since my memory is probably wrong on that too. But $8000 is a LOT.

[ladyiolanthe.livejournal.com]

My (gas-powered) 1999 Toyota Tercel finally had to have its battery replaced this past fall. Mind you that is probably a pretty good record because my cars don't get driven a lot. It's 9 years old and has less than 100 000 km on it. I got a Canadian Tire brand battery for less than $100.00. It would have cost more if I'd bought a Toyota brand battery. I doubt that hybrid cars have batteries available from anyone except their manufacturers yet so they do probably cost more because of the brand name/inability to get them at any old hardware store.

I hadn't heard that hybrid batteries cost $8000.00 - you may want to look into that. The bad thing I had heard about hybrid batteries is that they are not recyclable (yet) so when you do trade them in for another battery they create toxic waste that has to be disposed of.

[curtana.livejournal.com]

I believe the battery issue depends whether they're nickel cadmium (bad) or nickel metal hydride (not so bad). My understanding is that most hybrids today use NMH batteries. which can be recycled. The manufacturers claim they'll last for 150,000 to 200,000 km, but a bit of web searching reveals stories of people who've had to have them replaced earlier - most of those, I think, are slightly older-model hybrids, however, so possibly some of the problems are being worked out. The first story I came up with of someone having his hybrid car battery die was this one, from 2006, driving a 2000 Insight, still under warranty - several people in his comments relate similar stories, and one mentions a $5000 battery replacement cost, because the car in question was no longer under warranty.

So, basically, like almost any other car matter, it depends on the particular car and the type of warranty you get on it ;)