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Atrocities said:
The new hybrids are kinda cool. But I have one observation. If you buy one all your doing is transfering the gas you would use in the car to a power planet. So the effect is the same, just distributed differantly. Besides, what would you rather pay? $2.20 a gallon for gas, = 30 miles, or $5.10 per 30 miles of power? You do have to charge the batteries, and that does not come cheaply, especially in energy strapped CA.
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It never needs to be plugged in, the engine charges the batteries. Any time you let off the gas, it starts charging them. It tries to estimate what your intentions are and uses the charging so that it mimics engine braking. When you break, it goes to full charge and really pulls the speed down. If the batteries get below 50%, it will charge the a little when you are just driving along. I think the physics are based on converting momentum into electricity, then using the electricity to make the car go. So it is recycling the energy.