Gone are the days when the automotive market comprised only of high-powered gasoline powertrains. As the years passed and new innovations come into play, the automobile market has spurred heavy growth in different countries around the globe. One such invention is the “Hybrid” powertrain, which has been ushered by marquees like Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, and Ford for the betterment of the environment.
The first Hybrid engine was introduced in 1899 by Porsche which failed to reach the masses. However, when Toyota introduced its first gasoline-electric hybrid “Prius” almost 2 decades ago, it was hailed as the rise of the Hybrid cars. Since then, majority of car companies have invested heavily for the improvement of hybrid engines. A more productive idea is the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) which are better than the Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) as their motor can be charged via external charging ports. The car can be driven for over 50-kilometers (depending on the size of batteries) on the electric motor before switching to the gasoline engine.
The US automotive marketplace has 34 PHEVs on offer and as the stats go, manufacturers sold over 113,000 of those vehicles in 2018 only in America. Chevrolet Volt, Toyota Prius and Ford Fusion Energi contribute a total of 51% of PHEV sales in USA. Although, Toyota Prius’ sales have declined over past 5 years due to its low performance, dated technology and outlandish looks but with so much buzz going around in the PHEV sector, it can receive major updates soon.
Why choose Hybrids over gasoline-only cars? For instance, the 2019 Accord has an MSRP of $23,795 while the Honda Accord Hybrid, which offers a better engine and similar specs, is priced just 2 grands higher than the former. The hybrid seems as a better option when you consider it as a long-term option as it has high fuel efficiency and has better performance than the gasoline Accord.
Even with all this, the future of HEVs and PHEVs seems a little tough. Why, you’d ask? Well, with Geneva Motor Show on the brink, the automotive giants like the Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are entering in the electric car market to compete with Tesla. Also, Volvo has decided to ditch their solely gasoline engines soon and will dedicatedly enter the EV segment seeing Tesla’s growth. Reports suggest that Tesla Model 3 has outshone 11 of the top-notch PHEVs including Camry and the luxurious Cadillac CT6 in terms of sales by a huge margin. Biggest reasons for the success of Tesla Model 3 are its long-range high-powered electric motors and better technology available at a cheaper price.
However, when you think about it practically, the PHEVs are a better choice as a whole. You don’t have to worry about the battery discharge and neither about the re-charging of batteries as you have a gasoline engine for backup. By 2025, the EV and HEV market will account for 30% of the total cars all over the world which means that the total market share of green cars will reach up to 7.7%.
For the immediate future, hybrids make a lot of sense. For the long-term plan though, they are more like stepping stone. Civilization is bound to upgrade to electric cars, and hybrids would ultimately be lost in history.
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This post was published on March 20, 2019 6:13 pm