Modern hybrid cars are able to travel longer and longer distances solely on an electric motor. Is this already a breakthrough in the automotive world?
Toyota is the world’s largest seller of hybrid cars. It has been over 20 years since the first hybrid vehicle was launched. Since then, sales have reached 12 million! In 2019 alone, exactly 55,000 of them were sold in Poland. The fashion for hybrids is not waning, on the contrary. In the coming years, this number can be doubled! The Japanese offer every type of car with this drive. From the urban proposal Toyota Yaris, to crossovers C-HR or SUV RAV4. Also returning to favor Corolla gained a hybrid drive. Its consumption in the city in the sedan version is estimated at 4.3 l/100 – such result would not be ashamed of the Citroen C3 II, which consumes less than 5 liters of diesel.
The example of European countries or even Norway shows that without government support, revolution in the automotive market in our country may not be possible, and electric cars will not be so willingly chosen by the drivers solely because of ecology. Subsidies for “green” cars is a topic for a separate article. Hybrid drives are not so lucky, CO2 emissions in their case is lower, but still exists.
European standards of 95 g CO2/km must also be taken into account. In order to avoid penalties for excessive CO2 emissions, the company has to reduce combustion in its vehicles. A great way to do this is hybrid drive, which is used by Toyota, recently also by Mazda and British Jaguar, not to mention fully electric Tesla. However, the rest of the concerns have no small problem, especially German cars. Volkswagen, however, is betting on a revolution by creating an entire line of electric cars. More manufacturers may follow in their footsteps.
It’s been over 20 years in the making, and there’s still no end in sight. In fact, hybrid cars are just entering the height of their popularity. Customers are increasingly making a conscious decision to purchase dual-powered vehicles. What does it matter when we look to the future? The main objective is to develop purely electric vehicles, not only for passenger use, but also for public transport and, in the distant future, for air and water transport. So it is safe to say that hybrid cars are somewhat of a transitional state in this long road. The increasing use of hybrids means fewer carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Before we start mass-producing electric vehicles, hybrids can slow climate change.
Not all manufacturers willingly decide to change production solutions. Hence the penalties introduced from 2021 and the tightening of emission standards for 2025. Exactly 100 euros for each car sold must be paid by a company that exceeds the standards by one gram per kilometer. If we sell 100,000 cars a year, we are talking about a million euros. What if, for example, Mercedes sells a million cars and the standard is exceeded by a few grams?
Colossal losses are at hand. We are talking about a snowball effect here – more sales generate more fines. This is necessary, however, to force manufacturers who do not care about emission standards to start introducing hybrid cars and, at a later stage, also electric models. Without the intervention of the relevant authorities, taking care of the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere would be impossible
Cars with hybrid power trains are undoubtedly a positive development in the automotive world. So what is the future of this industry? It is easy to see that the number of hybrids will increase and vehicles with traditional powertrains will be forgotten. The times when we will see only electric vehicles in the offers of manufacturers from different regions of the world is still a distant future.
(photo: pixabay.com)
