I was able to get to try a hybrid car recently (it was the rental I got when my car was being repaired) and I wanted to share my thoughts. This is, like the title says, and unscientific study, as I only had one car to compare with my normal car, but I think the results are rather telling. First, some facts so that we can do a decent comparison. My normal car is a 2012 Honda Civic, purchased new. As of this writing, it has just over 16,000 miles on it. The rental was a 2012 Kia Optima and had just under 3,000 miles on it when returned. This comparison was done while commuting, which involves 156 miles per day on some combination of the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, US 195 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, along with a small amount of local roads. It’s safe to say that this is what you would call “highway” as far as gas mileage is concerned.
Typically I have to fill up the car every 2 days of commuting, and this is just over 10 gallons. I’m going to just use 10 to make the math easier. That produces approximately 31.2 mpg for the Civic. With the Optima, I was able to go 3 days of commuting before filling up. “That’s great!” you might say, “A 50% increase.” Nope. Sorry. It turns out that the Optima’s gas tank took just over 15 gallons when filled up. That produces, you guessed it, 31.2 mpg. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the EXACT same number. OK, I rounded, so it’s not exact, but it’s close enough that I feel the hybrid gave me no appreciable gain, at least not enough of one to justify the added purchase price.
How much more would a hybrid cost, you may wonder. Well, here are the numbers for identically equipped vehicles, purchased new (all prices MSRP from their respective websites):
Standard Hybrid Premium for Hybrid
2012 Honda Civic $15,955 $24,200 $8,245
2012 Kia Optima $23,950 $26,450 $2,500
Even taking the Kia premium cost of $2,500, it’s too much for no additional performance. Is this to say that someone with a more “local” commute won’t save anything in gas? I can’t say. What I can say, and why this is on the political blog as opposed to the other one, is DO NOT buy a hybrid if you plan on using it mostly for Highway driving. It just will not pay you back.
I would concur that the hybrids are not really a good substitute for a good quality sub-compact. It's really the wrong market place for them.
ReplyDeleteI would want to see the numbers run on a full-size SUV hybrid option where the electric motors, etc. would be larger and have the potential to maintain the car at highway speed by itself and thus not have to keep the gasoline engine running. I suspect that notable MPG savings could occur in that situation.