It's Electric - or Electrified - Whatever, Just Get It Right

Just like everything else in our culture.

What do you think those myths are?

@Tim Healey The main one is that the battery will require an $8000 replacement every few years. Also, bad mileage in winter, bad highway mileage, unreliability. Lots more depending where you want to drill down. Battery component pollution and shortages, for example. I'd be happy to provide a more extensive list to any journalist interested in doing a sincere article.

@brandloyalty Bad highway mileage isn't a myth, it's just the way hybrids are designed. Highways don't provide as many opportunities to recapture energy as city driving does.

@npaladin2000 I've seen the electric assist kick in on a Prius in mountainous areas at highway speeds.

@mcs Yeah because there was a slipped to generate a charge. Most highways are relatively flat.

@npaladin2000 Here in the Northeast we have quite a few that definitely aren't flat. The time I saw it kicking in on the Prius was i89 through NH and Vermont. I was the passenger and was watching the numbers and graphs display on the center display. The electric motor was definitely smoothing out the climbs and recovering a bit on the descents.

@npaladin2000 "Bad highway mileage isn’t a myth, it’s just the way hybrids are designed. Highways don’t provide as many opportunities to recapture energy as city driving does." Thanks for the opportunity to address one myth about hybrids. Steady driving on flat straight highways does not make use of hybrids' regenerative braking. Nor is engine stop/start a benefit on highways. Regenerative braking is only one aspect of what makes hybrids efficient. But compared to equivalent non-hybrids they still have the following that improve mileage on highways: a relatively small gas engine, which runs on the efficient Atkinson cycle, and is always at the ideal rpm using a cvt. They may also benefit from electric power steering, electric a/c compressor, lrr tires and streamlining tweaks. So although hybrids do not enjoy as big a mileage advantage on the highway as in the city, they still get better mileage than equivalent non-hybrids on highways. So the claim hybrids get bad highway mileage is garbage. Next myth please.

@npaladin2000 I have a bit of a thing about the many myths that have been spread about hybrids. I believe these myths originated with auto journalists and have impaired sales of hybrids. And that effect has carried over into ev's. Since I bought my hybrid 5 years ago, not one of the people I know who have bought cars have chosen hybrids. Despite being exposed to mine and despite most of them having libtard and envirotard sympathies. When pressed, they all say they are not comfortable with having a hybrid. Most of them cite the myths, regardless of any amount of evidence to the contrary. The hybrid liars just plain got to them first.

@brandloyalty Not a myth. Not all hybrids use CVTs either. And all cars these days use electric power steering. It's just the nature of the best. It's not like they get horrible highway fuel economy but they do get significantly worse highway economy than city economy, and some pure ICE vehicles actually do better on the highway. and because there's less opportunity to take advantage of the hybrid power train, they're also essentially a relatively underpowered ICE vehicle for a significant portion of highway driving anyway. You seem to want to talk about the Prius in specific but there are a lot of hybrid models out there now. They're a known quantity. And it's just life that they aren't all that hot on the highway. Mind you, I plan to buy one anyway, because my morning "highway" commute bears a strong resemblance to city stop and go driving because of all the traffic. But I'm also not going to lie to myself: if my drive was truly all highway a hybrid would not necessarily be the right choice.

@brandloyalty May I offer this as a counterpoint to your comment? https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1078138_toyota-hybrid-battery-replacement-cost-guide and this http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/04/autos/toyota_prius_battery_life/index.htm

@ttacgreg Lost my edit access, strike that first sentence and replace with, "May I offer these links as more info on the subject?"

@npaladin2000 ttacgreg: Funny, I read the two articles before reading your correction. I wondered how to put it tactfully that the articles actually confirmed my comments. Then I read the correction... Thanks for your input.

@npaladin2000 "Not a myth. Not all hybrids use CVTs either. And all cars these days use electric power steering. It’s just the nature of the best. It’s not like they get horrible highway fuel economy but they do get significantly worse highway economy than city economy, and some pure ICE vehicles actually do better on the highway. and because there’s less opportunity to take advantage of the hybrid power train, they’re also essentially a relatively underpowered ICE vehicle for a significant portion of highway driving anyway." It depends on the circumstances but hybrids generally get only slighrly worse city mileage than highway mileage. In the city the losses from stop&go are offset by the lower wind resistance from slower speeds. Of course some pure ICE cars get better hughway mileage than some hybrids. I was careful to state a comparison between a hybrid and an EQUIVALENT non-hybrid. Hybrids get much better mileage than equivalent non-hybrids in city driving, and better mileage in highway driving. Almost all highway driving uses only a fraction of the gas engine's available power. This is why there are all sorts of approaches to minimize the losses from operating an engine that is vastly outsized most of the time. These measures include turbochargers and cylinder deactivation. Hybrids start with smaller engines running the Atkinson Cycle, and call on the electrical system when a boost is needed. So far there are only one or two non-hybrids that ever run on the Atkinson Cycle, so for now it is a hybrid attribute.