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Research proves hybrids cost less in long-run Intellichoice Shows Hybrids Worth the Cash
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Hybrid
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Hybrid-car owners who claim that their vehicles really do save them money have often been derided by skeptics, who will cite statistics showing that the price premium of their vehicle, when calculated by the increased fuel efficiency of their vehicle, does not put more money in their pocket after a few years of ownership.
However, Intellichoice.com, the outfit noted for its automobile cost-of-ownership reports, has come out with a new study that refutes the hybrid-savings naysayers: Once you factor in other items, such as “financing, fuel, insurance, state taxes and license fees, repairs, maintenance and depreciation,” according to an L.A. Times article on this report, then hybrids will, indeed, save you money. In fact, Intellichoice looked at 22 hybrid vehicles and found that they saved money for their owners over a five-year or 70,000-mile period. Today’s iconic hybrid, the Toyota Prius, pulls some sweet numbers in the Intellichoice study: Prius buyers can expect to save $13,408 over an equivalent all-gasoline-engined car, such as a Toyota Camry. Similar-sized non-hybrid vehicles cost an average of $33,305 to run over that same five-year period; the Prius, by contrast, costs just $19,897 to operate in the same timeframe. What’s the difference between the two? Well, it’s not just lowered fuel costs (although that’s certainly part of it). Hybrids don’t depreciate as much as conventional vehicles; in addition, the maintenance and repair costs are not as expensive as one might expect. The study based the fuel costs on a price of $2.26 a gallon. Although the price of fuel may fluctuate and affect the final results, the overall percentage of ownership costs between hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles will generally remain the same. One of the other factors that make hybrids cheaper in the long run is that owners get a tax credit for the purchase of their vehicles (although this can depend on the manufacturer of the car—some use up their allotment of tax credits faster than others—and in what state the car was purchased). After the Prius, the most cost-saving hybrids on sale in the U.S. include the Honda Civic hybrid, the Toyota Highlander SUV hybrid, and the Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner SUV hybrids. General Motor’s line of “mild hybrid” pickups and SUVs don’t provide nearly the savings that a traditional hybrid vehicle; their savings ranged from $2,940 to $3,463. (Mild hybrids typically turn the engine off when the car is stopped, and quickly start it again when the accelerator pedal is pushed; this allows for fuel savings, but does not actually contribute power to the drivetrain.) Car manufacturers are working on newer hybrid models that would allow cars to run for a longer period of time on electric power alone, providing the ability to recharge the batteries by plugging them into an electrical outlet. These “plug-in hybrids” are not expected to be available until possibly 2009 or 2010; it is expected that they should provide costs savings even greater than current models.
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