As oil prices continue to rise amid depleting supplies and rapidly growing demand, economies around the world are feeling the setbacks of the need to curb excessive fuel consumption.
For quite some time, research and development has been actively finding ways how the problems related to very high demand could finally be eliminated. With the advent of the hybrid car, car owners and users around the world are now finding relief that there is indeed hope.
A hybrid car is a specially designed and manufactured vehicle that combines the power of a conventional gasoline engine and electricity. In the past, many have referred to hybrid vehicles as electric vehicles.
Technically, a hybrid car could not be classified as purely electric because only about 40% of the vehicle’s energy consumption comes from electrical sources, in the form of electricity stored in batteries.
Although the widespread use of hybrid cars provides hope that in the future, when oil supplies finally run out completely, the transportation industry won’t feel the pinch. Yes, for now, driving a hybrid car could mean a lot of savings for the car owner.
At the very least, total oil consumption could be significantly reduced. Research is still ongoing so that new, better versions of the modern hybrid car can be developed and brought to market in the near future.
However, like many other predecessor technologies, there are real setbacks to owning and using a hybrid car. Many people hope that in the next few months or years, people will finally be able to make a better and more effective hybrid car. Here are the most practical and obvious of those drawbacks.
1. Because hybrid car technology is still a relatively new car technology, it stands to reason that the vehicle would be expensive. On average, a hybrid car these days costs more than regular, usual cars by around $2,000 to $5,000. That is correct and expected with the high demand for the car as more consumers get excited about it and manufacturers continue to produce the vehicle models with limited capacity.
2. Any hybrid car needs to allocate a significant amount of space for the battery. Because the hybrid car needs batteries to keep running and for the use of some of its functions, the total weight of the car increases more and more.
3. There are several states in the United States and some other global governments worldwide that charge more additional fees and other charges for acquisition and registration.
4. If the hybrid car suffers from possible crashes and collisions in the future, there is a risk that the incident will be more tragic. A hybrid car typically and normally has high voltage wires inside of it.
5. A regular and even simple hybrid car is made of a very complicated car system. Therefore, ordinary mechanics would not have the necessary and required skills and knowledge to take care of any technical maintenance needs of any hybrid car.
6. Because hybrid cars are not yet so commonplace, buying parts can be very difficult, if not impossible. In addition, the costs of spare parts can be very high.
7. It is well known that hybrid cars run slower than normal car models.