Do hybrid cars work in rural/ suburban areas?
By admin ~ January 6th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
By admin ~ January 6th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
7 Responses to Do hybrid cars work in rural/ suburban areas?
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January 8th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I looked at a hybrid, and the salesman told me it would not be good in stop and go traffic, because the hybrid would not kick in. If you do alot of highway miles, then the hybrid is for you.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Yes, for some hybrid cars…Full hybrid cars work well in rural and suburban areas but really shine in cities because of the battery they run by. When the car is in bumper to bumper traffic which is the constant starting and stopping that eats away the gasoline like it’s nothing, the battery is the one providing the car energy, not the gasoline. When the car is traveling about 30 miles or more per hour (if I can remember right) the car switches to gas because the energy provided by the battery is not enough to make the car go much faster than that… When on a highway using a hybrid car, about 80% of the energy provided is from the gasoline while 20% is from the battery. The battery when going fast only provides the extra boost the car needs without having to use more gas. Some hybrid cars cannot start from a full stop by the battery power alone, which then the car uses the gasoline and the battery together, still saving gas because the battery does some work that gas in a normal car would still have to do.
By the way, georgia girl is wrong… If she really knew what she was doing when she was buying a car that topic wouldn’t even come up when talking about the car unless you’re testing the seller. When you buy a car you should know more about the car than the seller…Obviously she knew next to nothing
January 11th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
hybrids electric motors only really work when the engine is not under strain whether it be acceleration or slowing down in gear. the design train is manufactured so that the electric motor kicks in after at least 40 % of the batteries. In other words the hybrid only really benefits from open freeways or cruising. As long as you are not accelerating constantly the hybrid will work perfectly
January 13th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Essentially a hybrid shines when accelerating by using the stored electrical power and they are special when braking because they use the energy to stop the vehicle to recharge the batteries so you can put some of the regained energy into the accelerating.
This is why hybrids have great fuel economy in the city, but fairly typical fuel economy on the highway when compared to the direct, non-hybrid counterparts. On the highway, they’re generally the same as the normal car, but usually with some extra weight.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I will try to answer your question as you have asked it.
1) Hybrid cars work well anywhere. They get you to and from where you want/need to go just as any quality car would do.
2) Hybrid cars offer the least cost, least polution(CO2) in city driving or more specificly city street driving where you stop and go and seldom exceed 40 mph. This is because there primary motive power is provided by the electic motor with electricy coming from the batteries. The more you have long stretches of smooth low speed driving the more you will run silent (electic motor only). The more you have stop and go driving or higher speeds the more you will have the gasoline engine running to generate electic power and propel the car along.
3) In rural (country, farm road) driving, if going slow the electric motor will take you along nicely. If you travel some a long distance or the near highway speeds then you will have the gasoline engine come on and charge the batteries, power the electric motor and propel the car.
When you are traveling at highway speeds or long distance you will find the gasoline mileage compareable to small cars with small engines. If you like to speed along then you well find you get the same mileage as other cars of the same size as yours.
If you are getting a hybrid for good reasons then you will need to drive just a bit more leasurly than you might in a more powerful car to get the greatest benefit.
If you are getting it to be cool then you will find you can race your friends of the light for the first 1/4 mile or so and they will be supprised you keep up with them or in some cases (when friends have a small engine w/automatic transmission) you will beat them, but then you will not enjoy the going 100miles on a couple of gallons of gas.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:18 am
According to consumer’s reports, the Honda hybrid gets a little over half the mileage on the sticker. This is because the EPA estimates are run on a treadmill, with no wind resistance. Not to mention the battery packs for hybrids are only rated for 3 years and cost $2000-$3000 to replace. Even if they got twice the fuel economy of a gas powered car, they still would need to be driven for about 8 years in order to pay for the difference in price upfront and in maintenance costs. Hybrids are not a good value for the consumer.
They do produce somewhat fewer greenhouse gasses, so if you want to be environmentally friendly and don’t mind spending more to do it, by all means buy one.
Now for the actual question - the electric motor only engages when passing on the highway, so urban driving gets the maximum benefit of hybrid technology. The electric motor is used quite a bit in stop-and-go traffic.
By the way - I used to sell Honda hybrids for a living.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
A hybrid gets the best mileage in the city because anytime it comes to a complete stop it can shut off and run off of the electric motor. On the highway, you’ll still get great mileage but since the engine will not shut off you’ll still use some fuel. Overall, they still make sense. Look at the Toyota Prius. It gets 51mpg on the highway (not bad at all) and it gets 60mpg in the city. To say they don’t work well in rural environments is not correct (inless 51mpg doesn’t impress you!).
Hybrids are great for consumers, and they make even more sense as gas prices go up. Check out and see for yourself that it doesn’t take 8 years to recoup the money invested in buying one.
Honda rates their battery packs for 10 years, not 3. Check out