Half-gas cruisin'

By Kevin Ma

I'm about $2,520 richer today than I was nine years ago thanks to my hybrid car.

I replaced my 2001 Acura 1.7EL with a 2006 Honda Civic hybrid nine years ago and have driven it about 90,000 km since then.

Based on information from Natural Resources Canada's fuel consumption ratings tool and an average price of $1 a litre, I've spent about $4,950 on gas during that time – about $2,520 less than I would have with the Acura. That's prevented some 5.76 tonnes of emissions – equivalent to planting and growing 148 trees for 10 years, reports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emissions calculator.

I would be even richer if I drove more. St. Albert engineer Murray Paulson works on the south side of Edmonton, for example, and used to commute in a Toyota Matrix.

“I was filling up every five or six days,” he says, so he replaced it with a used Lexus CT 200h hybrid two years ago.

He's now getting about 900 km out of every tank of gas and saving about $1,000 a year.

“It's really incredible how good the mileage actually is.”

While they were still kind of new when I first got one, hybrids are now an established technology and a proven way to save on gas and greenhouse gases. They're mainstays of the taxi industry and increasingly common on local roads.

Hybrid cars have drive-trains that combine gasoline and electric engines, says Scott Wilson, policy analyst with the Alberta Motor Association (AMA). Unlike electric cars, these ones run off gasoline, using the electric motor to supplement or replace the gas one on occasion.

“The neat thing about it is it's seamless,” Wilson says – the car shifts between the two engines automatically, and often imperceptibly.

Hybrids save most of their fuel by shutting off the gas engine whenever the car isn't moving. (Toyota hybrids also do this while the car is cruising.) They also use regenerative braking to charge the battery when you brake, recovering what would otherwise be lost energy. That power in turn drives the electric motor, reducing the amount of gas you use.

Wilson says most hybrids use about 30 to 40 per cent less fuel than the equivalent regular car as a result, using about 5 L/100 km instead of 8.

“That's a substantial achievement.”

Road test

Hybrids do cost more to buy – typically $3,000 to $4,000 more, depending on the model – but you recover that cost fast with your fuel savings. In the case of a 2016 Honda Civic hybrid, though, the difference is a mere $350, which NRCAN estimates you recover in less than a year.

Hybrids generally accelerate as well as any other comparable car and have no problem keeping up with traffic, Wilson says.

Paulson says he's found his car's electric motor gives him instant acceleration, and that it seems faster than his old one despite having less horsepower.

“It's quite peppy,” he says, and has no problems lunging into traffic.

The regenerative braking systems also help the car stop faster and reduce wear on brakes, Paulson notes.

“The brakes will last almost the same lifetime of the car.”

Back when I got my hybrid, there was some concern that the battery packs would burn out after 10 years or 100,000 km, as that was the length of the warrantee on them.

Wilson says that concern never materialised, and that most of those early hybrids are still on the road today. The AMA's 2002 Toyota Prius now has about 175,000 km on it and still drives just as well as it did 14 years ago, for example. A 2011 Consumer Reports study found virtually no difference in the performance of a Prius even after 331,500 km.

Hybrids do have toxic chemicals in their batteries, but most of the major manufacturers have reuse and recycling programs for them now.

Gas prices may be low, but hybrids are still one of the only two types of car that actually save you money as you drive them.

The other is the electric car, which I'll look at in my next column.