Hybrid Cars: A Step, Not a Solution

Hybrid cars are NOT the answer to America's energy problems. Today's cars, including hybrid cars, are TOO EXPENSIVE for drivers, for America, and for earth! Most of the machines we love so much have an internal combustion engine, known in environmental circles as ICE. General Motors Chevy Volt hybrid, which we may see in 2011, offers an exciting alternative to existing hybrids, but still has an internal combustion engine. No matter how clean technology makes them,
and even though they have become very reliable, internal combustion engines are not a good answer for the future. Americans must look to new solutions for
their family cars.

Just for a moment, let's forget Al Gore's controversial documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." Regardless of "global warming," why should we be driving inefficient vehicles that extend our dependence on foreign oil? Alternatives are possible, practical and just as much fun to own and drive as today's ICE-powered cars. Until recently, I believed my next car would be a hybrid car. Now I have converted my own electric vehicle and am working to convince others that electric cars, not hybrids, are the answer. It is up to us!

Why not a hybrid car? Since hybrids are available now and help with the immediate oil dependence problem, these cars are a good quick fix. But such complex hybrid cars still have internal combustion engines (ICE) with all the expensive qualities of their ancestors. Here is a partial list:

-Poison our air
-Complicated internal parts that wear
-Self-destruction by the dirty explosions at their hearts
-Pollute with imported oil and gas for fuel and lubrication
-Require expensive catalytic converters
-Maintenance-intensive compared with electric machines
-Inefficient

Although I have always loved cars, and they have vastly improved, ICE-powered autos can never reach the efficiency and environmental friendliness of electric vehicles (EV's). Hybrids help with oil consumption and perhaps pollution, but still rely on oil and its unfortunate baggage. A new generation of EV's is as lovable as our old friends without the hybrid downside.