Fuel prices are high, and getting higher. More people are shunning the traditional big Aussie sixes and lazy V8s in favour of the more frugal European and Japanese four-cylinder offerings. And with fair reason -- fuel consumption savings certainly help to keep the dollars in the wallet.
But what about taking it a step further? Hybrid cars are starting to make an impact on the car market across the globe and although only a handful are currently available in Australia, more will be arriving soon.
So, surely hybrid cars will save you money! Not necessarily...
Current hybrid cars use both petrol and electrical power. They generally use smaller capacity petrol engines to power the car when under hard acceleration, or when the car is under heavy load. The electric motor is used either to supplement engine power; at very low speeds in its own right, and when the car is cruising at a constant speed with a small throttle application.
Hybrid cars carry rechargeable batteries which power the electric motor(s). They don't need to be 'plugged in' to recharge. They recharge by 'capturing' energy from the vehicle itself either via regenerative braking systems, or direct charging from the engine itself.
This sharing of work by the electric motor and petrol engine obviously lowers the fuel consumption considerably; usually by up to 30-40 per cent over a comparable petrol-engined model.
Looks like a convincing case for the hybrid -- 30 per cent fuel saving is a lot of money to the average car user. So what's the catch?
Well, the catch is the price... Not the price of fuel, the price of the car!
Hybrids are expensive. If we take the case of the latest Honda Civic Hybrid, the Hybrid Civic retails at just under $33,000. The pure-petrol largely spec-equivalent Civic VTi-L retails at $24,990. That's $8000 difference!
So how long would it take for an average user to save $8000 in fuel when driving a hybrid? At $1.50/litre, if you averaged 20,000km a year, it would take more than 11 years!
Even if we project a 50 per cent increase in petrol it would still take more than seven years to break even... Quite a wait.
But what about other running costs? Is it correct to assume a car with two power sources has more potential of things going wrong?
This might be a fair assumption, but the fact of the matter is that a definitive answer is yet to be decided. Hybrids are simply too new to comment with any authority.
Certainly, consumables like the special low rolling resistance tyres are more expensive than conventional tyres, but there's little else that should cost you more.
One myth-within-a-myth we can dispel is the longevity of the batteries used in the current crop of hybrids.
One of the largest non-conventional components in a hybrid car, the batteries are proving themselves commendably reliable, with some fleet users reporting 300,000km-plus lifespans with the batteries still going strong.
Most manufacturers have longer warranties on their hybrid cars' batteries than on the other components in the cars. Meantime, both Toyota and Honda say the units replaced under warranty number a mere handful.
In short, hybrids undoubtedly produce lower emissions than comparable petrol engine vehicles, and they go a long way to giving your eco-conscience a boost, but until their sticker prices are more closely aligned with petrol counterparts, they won't give your bank balance the same sort of fillip!
The Myth - Buying a Hybrid car will save you money - is BUSTED.
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