Hybrid Cars: The Best Of Both Worlds For Cleaner Air

hybrid cars

We at Gasonic advocate for people to see electric vehicles as an option to consider when they enter the market to buy a new car. That’s why we frequently talk about their benefits for the environment, and in the long term, for their budgets.

However, we’re aware that EVs are expensive, and there are still not enough public EV charging stations across Canada to satisfy a potential rise of EVs on the road. According to the International Energy Agency, Canada had a ratio of 0.06 public chargers for every EV as of April 2021, and the situation hasn’t changed much ever since.

Here’s where hybrid cars come up as a potential solution that combines the best of both electric and gasoline-powered vehicles for optimal performance and cleaner air.

What Is a Hybrid Car?

Simply put, a hybrid is a car that has both a combustion engine and one or more electric motors powered by batteries to move the car. This feature allows the user to switch between gas, or electricity to move their vehicle. This results in numerous benefits for the environment, and your economy.

What Are the Benefits of Driving Hybrid Cars?

Some of the benefits of choosing hybrid cars include:

Lower emissions: since hybrid cars run with two engines, the result is less gas usage, and less tailpipe CO2 emissions, resulting in cleaner air and a reduced carbon footprint.
Tax and financial benefits: since 2019, the federal government has been offering the Zero-Emission Vehicles Program (iZEV), that helps Canadian drivers who want to buy or lease an EV or a hybrid car by giving them up to $5,000 rebate on their purchase.

In April 2022, the list of eligible vehicles was updated and now hybrid cars with a price range to $55,000 from $65,000, and an electric range of 50 km or more will be eligible for the $5,000 rebate.

We recommend drivers in the market for a hybrid car keep an eye on the iZEV official website, since the list is updated every time new models are approved.

Less dependence on gas: driving a hybrid car means fewer visits to the gas station. Not only because the vehicle can move just using its battery, but also because it burns less gas per mileage. Hybrid cars can get up to 30 miles per gallon, twice as much as gasoline-powered cars. This will save you a considerable amount of money in the long run, offsetting the cost of the vehicle.
Better performance: although it is true that some EVs can be slower than gasoline-powered cars, it’s not the case with hybrid cars and their dual power. Hybrids use the electric engine while driving at a low speed in short distances, use the combustion engine when you need to pick up speed, and both for optimal performance when accelerating or climbing a hill.
Built lighter: hybrid cars are manufactured with lighter materials overall, and both gas and electric engines are lighter and smaller than traditional engines, which means that they don’t need as much energy to run as gasoline-powered vehicles.
No more idling: hybrids shut off automatically when the vehicle is idling and restarts when the driver presses the accelerator pedal. This is a game changer when it comes to getting cleaner air, since idling is one of the factors that causes more air pollution.

We recently made a video where we go a little deeper on why we should all switch to hybrid. You can give it a look here:

Are There Any Disadvantages of Driving a Hybrid?

While we believe the benefits surpass the disadvantages, we can’t deny that they exist. Some of the downsides of hybrid cars are:

Not optimal for long distances: Even though its dual power offers great performance, hybrids are still more suitable for city driving rather than road trips.
Higher maintenance costs: the dual engine and the constant improvements in technology make mechanical repairs and overall maintenance more expensive than regular cars. On top of that, mechanics with expertise in hybrids are more difficult to find.
Expensive battery replacement: although hybrid car batteries have a long life expectancy (128,000 to 160,000 Kms, and even longer with the proper maintenance and care) if a replacement is needed it can be expensive. The price range varies greatly, since each manufacturer uses different types of batteries, but you can expect to spend from CA$ 1,200 to more than CA$ 7,500.

Changing Your Driving Habits

If even after seeing the benefits of driving a hybrid car, you don’t think it’s suitable for your lifestyle, that’s okay: you still can impact positively on the environment by just idling your regular car less.

Just to put things in perspective, if Canadians reduce the amount of time they spend idling by just three minutes every day, the results would be equivalent to taking 320,000 cars off the road entirely. Reducing (or eliminating) car idling is still the most significant step you can take to reduce air pollution.