155
submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

America’s automakers have staked their futures on the notion that electric vehicles will dominate sales in the coming years, spurred by buyers determined to reduce carbon emissions and save on fuel.

But so far, while EV sales are growing, their pace is falling well short of the industry’s ambitious timetable for transitioning away from combustion engines. Instead, buyers are increasingly embracing a quarter-century-old technology whose popularity has been surging: The gas-electric hybrid, which alternates from gas to battery power to maximize efficiency.

So far in 2023, Americans have bought a record 1 million-plus hybrids — up 76% from the same period last year, according to Edmunds.com. As recently as last year, purchases had fallen below 2021’s total. This year’s figures don’t even include sales of 148,000 plug-in hybrids, which drive a short distance on battery power before a gas-electric system kicks in.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The gas-electric hybrid, which alternates from gas to battery power to maximize efficiency.

Misnomer.
Hybrids are way worse for efficiency because you are going to end up running either on gas or electricity while having to carry the weight of the other. But fun to see that Americans are hopping on falling EU trends for once after those shit stains had been criticized rightfully so for a long time now.

Edit: American exceptionalism downvotes. 🤡

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Gas electric hybrids come in two variations, standard and plugin.

The plugin is far more efficient, because the electricity at your outlet is produced with far fewer emissions on average than at your alternator. Your first 20-50 or so miles are costing the equivalent of like 12 cents a gallon, and that accounts for like 90% of all personal driving. Even with the added weight of both systems, it's more efficient and less expensive to drive for almost everyone. The only people who would not benefit are daily commuters driving significantly farther than the battery will take you.

The non-plugin hybrid will charge the batteries with excess (normally wasted) energy from the engine and the brakes. That energy can be used for short distances, and whether it is more or less efficient overall depends on where you live and how you drive. Stop and go city traffic is better in the hybrid than open road highway driving.

[-] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

No. Because the reality is that no one is going to charge their hybrid electrically and just uses the combustion engine instead. And as I said already, the EV parts have to carry the combustion engine parts of the car and the combustion engine parts have to carry the EV engine parts of the car, making both variants less efficient than their pure counterparts. Like I said, we've been through this exact scenario already for many years over here. If you have the choice between a hybrid and a pure EV, go for the pure EV. Or better, see if you can drop your cage entirely if possible.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

While I don't doubt there are people too lazy to plug in, especially when they only have a level 1 chargwr at home, just having the option will encourage more charging infrastructure. New homes are being built with a 240v circuit to the garage "just in case" the buyer gets an electric car. Corporations are installing chargers in oreferred parking spaces and calling it an employee benefit.

You're saying people are wasteful. That's true. People could drive slower on the highway and save money because they use less gas.

Going pure EV is better, but people still want to be able to fuel up in 5 minutes. Giving them both in one car will support the transition as adoption expands.

this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
155 points (100.0% liked)

News

23311 readers
4102 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS