Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Fueling Consumer Rage: I've been seeing more and more articles about how hybrid cars are not living up to their reputation as conservers of gasoline. The combination gasoline/electric engine is designed to reduce emissions, but the cars are being advertised as fuel efficient as well. However, consumers are finding that their expensive new cars barely get any better gas mileage than similar-sized standard models.

Dealers maintain that although ads claim hybrid cars can get high miles per gallon, the fine print says that "actual mileage may vary". The EPA says hybrid cars can get 55 MPG. But actual results hover around 36 MPG, meaning the consumers are just SOL.

Apparently, the hybrid cars still spit out significantly fewer emissions than their standard counterparts. But new cars often have close to non-existent fuel emissions and then later become environmental hazards. These hybrids have just hit the streets. I'll be anxious to see whether they keep up their clean act in a few years.