If hybrid cars are so great for saving fuel, why aren't all cars made as hybrids?

Question

is the technology in short supply? too expensive? somebody told me the oil companies are paying off the car companies not to make hybrids?

Answer 1

Because 'the market' (buyers) demands choice and individuality from automotive purchases.

Answer 2

The awful truth is ... a hybrid vehicle only gets nominally better mileage than a VW Jetta diesel, and about a dozen other vehicles available the world over. The Hybrids are a step in the right direction but are still just a band-aid for a serious problem. Not to mention the cars themselves are heavy, extremely complex and overpriced. This IS a market economy and the money flows where the buying public goes. Oil companies paying off the car makers....God we have been hearing this crap for years. There is NO way a secret like that involving THOUSANDS of people could ever be kept. And why would they bother? Hybrids STILL use gasoline to operate!

Answer 3

My Neon gets 30+ miles per gallon. It's paid for. In terms of economics, there is no mathematically sound reason for me to buy a hybrid. The marketplace determines what vehicles are available, not oil companies. The "somebody" that you place so much faith in when it comes to corporate conspiracies has apparently never put much thought into their beliefs. Here's what you need to do. Clear your mind of all the crap you have heard about hybrids, oil company payoffs, technology, and hybrid efficiency, including that which you have read on Yahoo! Answers. Then, replace all that crap with information you have read in reputable automotive and technology sources. I will give you some ideas to get you started. Once you get some sound information in your head and you develop some deductive reasoning capability, you will begin to recognize bullshiit when you hear it.

1. Road & Track magazine.
2. Car And Driver magazine.
3. Automobile magazine.
4. Popular Science magazine.
5. Popular Mechanics magazine.
6. Consumer Reports magazine.

Do not under any circumstances obtain your automotive and technology information from any of the following:

1. Woman's Day magazine.
2. Cosmopolitan magazine.
3. Any magazine that does not have, as its primary reason for being published, automobiles and technology.

Do not trust any information that you cannot substantiate by referencing at least one other source, better yet, two. When your brother-in-law's cousin tells you that you can use fryer oil in your gasoline-powered car, please double-check. The point I am trying to make, and I do hope I am successful, is that most people don't appear to know the first thing about automotive technology, and the minute they open their mouth, they remove all doubt. You must learn not to listen to them.

Answer 4

The truth is that in stop and go driving conditions a hybrid vehicle is actually less fuel-efficient than its standard counterpart. Hybrid vehicles cost more initially and have a higher maintenance cost over a standard period of ownership. Thus negating any fuel cost savings the owner may experience.

I'm not saying hybrids are a step in the wrong direction. The technology to significantly reduce our dependance on foreign oil isn't going to happen over night. It's also not being hampered by the oil companies, as some conspiracy-theorists would have you believe. It will take years of small technological breakthroughs for the U.S. to significantly reduce the amount of oil we use on a daily basis. It will also take more than technological breakthroughs in the automotive industry.

Answer 5

Because the technology is still very costly and not many consumers are willing to pay $6000 for a battery pack every five years. Once they achieve the economies of scale catch up with demand, everyone will be driving one. Personally, it's smoke and mirrors. Energy is energy whether it comes from a battery or gas can it's the same amount. The gas engine on a Prius is smaller than the one on a Hummer, for example. This alone will save more gas than tacking an electric motor, batteries and several thousand dollars to the price of a car ever will.

Answer 6

How about this your four year old hybrid gasoline engine runs all the time and battery indicator is flashing... Just take the whole car apart and replace up to twenty battery's. How much do you think that will cost you and how about lead in the environment? ( lead Pb is poison!) in all those batterys. So just how good do you think hybrid technology is now. Wait for Hydrogen Fuel cells.

Answer 7

Very simple money, government and lobbyists
The technology right now is too expensive just look at the cost of a compact hybrid.
The other part is the lobbyists for the petroleum companies and the government. There is way too much money to be lost and gained by politicians and companies.
A simple rule of thumb when trying to answer questions of this sort "follow the money"

Answer 8

Hybrid cars appear to save you money, but they are still way more expensive than conventional cars. The initial cost of buying the car is $2,000 more. The cost to replace the hybrid battery, which you will have to do every so often is between $1000 and $2,000. Because of the premium placed on these cars, the demand for hybrids remains low. $2,000 still buys you a lot of gas.

Answer 9

Just like the new hydrogen cars they are making...definitely a lot cheaper economically...but financially that's a differ question all to itself...they start out at $100,000 basic model