Everything you ever wanted to know about plug-in hybrids...

Global Warming & Climate Change Forum

...but weren't told by the auto and gas companies.

Check out this speech by Sherry Boschert, hopefully these cars will come out sooner than we think! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Sherry Boschert discusses the future of plug-in hybrid vehicles

I agree that plug-hybrids are only one of the solutions going forward. I'm also excited that after GM and Toyota bring out their plug-ins most other automakers will too and this will automatically mean cleaner air and less dependency upon foreign oil.

I'm saving up for a Hybrid. No, I'm not environmentally conscious, but hell it SAVES money. I can't believe that our society (er, American society) doesn't suck these suckers up in 12-packs. We love saving gas money.

Haha, a lot of truth to that. I would buy a Hybrid to save money. But if a gigantic gas guzzling Suburban that spewed a giant black cloud into the sky somehow saved me money, I would get that too.

I recycle my beer and soda cans on occasion for money. If there was no money involved for recycling I wouldn't bother.

-HECK!

The only reason why they're saying hybrids are not saving money is because of depreciation rate, but that is changing as hybrids find themselves on the used car market. Our lab currently uses a hybrid as the lab vehicle and it works great, especially in the way of fuel efficiency. Even driving inefficiently, you can still get 40-45 miles to the gallon. My one complaint is that I don't like the rear windows in the Prius, but that's about it.

Another option is the electric car, which are really coming along. If you look at something like the Killacycle, it outperforms ICE, 0-60 in under a second, and there are many electric vehicles that can do 0-60 in four seconds. You have the high end Tesla Roadster. but I was also reading about the more affordable LionEV or Lotus Zap X.

http://www.lionev.com/Vehicles.html
http://www.zercustoms.com/news/Lotus-ZAP-X.html

I think plug-in hybrids (aren't they just mods to existing hybrids at the moment?) are still a little too exist, but these cars are the future and people should take notice.

The battery weight issue is not a problem as they do not weigh that much and the disposal of car batteries isn't a problem because they are recycled. Many companies actively recycle their car batteries so the toxicity from batteries is not a problem. Battery toxicity is an issue that arises from consumer electronics because people don't recycle their AA, AAA, C, etc. batteries.