this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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Hybrids are stupid , twice as much vehicle systems to break, but that's why the dealerships love them. Repairs keep them going.
I get this sentiment, but it'd go a long way for people who have the dreaded "range anxiety". If they want the expense of both systems, then go for it. I have a used Chevy Volt which is a PHEV, we got it a few years ago and didn't want to commit to full electric yet. It's my families only car and in our case it's been bullet proof. 95% of our driving is on electric with only family visits requiring gas. It's not a bad system for people who aren't convinced. Different now that it's becomming a culture war issue though.
I guess if you have a crappy brand of hybrid that might be true. I'm 8 years into owning a Toyota hybrid and I've done nothing but once a year oil changes, one set of tires, and just did my first set of brake pads. I guess cabin air filters and other regular consumables too. There's actually added reliability in the fact that the engines have no belts or mechanical driven accessories, which are common failure points, because the mechanical engine isn't always running to drive those accessories. The electric controlled accessories are overall more reliable with less moving parts to fail. Being friends with a recently retired Toyota mechanic he said they didn't often see the hybrids for anything but routine stuff. I suppose there are exceptions to this, and there are certainly far shittier car brands than Toyota making hybrids too.
Want even more hate against hybrids? They're arguably worse than efficient combustion engines.
Catalytic converters are the thing that reduce ICE emissions, but they don't work well until they're heated up since they need to be at a higher temperature before the catalyst reaction can take place. This isn't usually much of a problem because it takes less than 30 seconds for them to get to that temperature with a regular ICE vehicle.
But what happens with hybrids, where the gas engine continues to shut on and off? Well the CC keeps cooling down and having to reheat. Depending on the usage, hybrid vehicles can wind up producing more emissions than non-hybrids if they keep switching between the gas and electric motors.