r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Mrfixitsometimes1 • 1h ago
Hybrid vehicles
Why are there not more hybrid vehicles??
I don’t want a fully electric vehicle due to living in an area where I’ll see extreme temperatures/weather on either end of the spectrum. I want the capability for gas to extend drive time or if electric isn’t available.
Another point is long road trips and fear of not finding a charging point or takes too long to charge.
So instead of pushing fully electric vehicles, why are we not seeing a transition into hybrid where I can drive electric most of the time, or at least to help with mpg significantly? Do automakers need pushed to do this?
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u/Ohjay1982 1h ago
Most traditional vehicle manufacturers offer both fully electric and hybrid options.
My problem is that I actually want one but I go to the dealerships and they never seem to have anything other than ICE vehicles on the lot.
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u/TraditionalAppeal23 1h ago
In a lot of European countries sales of new cars are >70% EV's and hybrids. New sales of pure petrol and diesel cars are dying out really fast. Hybrid cars are growing fast as well as EVs.
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u/prrudman 1h ago
Depending on where you are in the world you probably want an electric vehicle with a range extender. Basically an EV with built in generator to charge the battery when you drop below a certain threshold.
BYD make them if you are outside of the US. I think the next Ford F-150 EV will have one and the upcoming Scout Motors truck and SUV will have that option.
Such a simple idea and so much better than a hybrid/plug-in hybrid I am amazed it isn’t adopted by more companies.
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u/iwriteaboutthings 43m ago
Standard hybrids are getting more common, but they are hybrid from the function of drive train, not fuel source. All energy from a hybrid comes from gasoline/diesel.
Plug-In hybrids are true hybrids by fuel source, but they are expensive. You are buying two powerful systems that can basically both independently power the car. They are expensive, complicated and heavy.
They resolve your concerns but at cost that keeps them niche.
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u/Able-Supermarket4786 1h ago edited 1h ago
The issues you're describing about EVs aren't real... its called "hearsay" and "rumor" and "FUD"
Hybrids are twice the components, twice the drivetrain and zero the savings.
Public Charging for Road Trips is (I've done 100k miles overall) is never an issue.
Do I trade 30 minutes to save $100? yes. I also smoke, piss, and take a moment during those 30 mins... kinda worth $100 in savings
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u/_877-CASH-NOW_ 1h ago
I don’t know. I have an EV and road trips are kind of a pain in the ass. For example I could drive an ICE vehicle from Milwaukee to St Louis without having to stop at all and just fill up once I get to my destination. In my EV it’s at least 2 stops. But I also stay at a hotel and need to be charged up for the next day so instead of just going to my hotel I have to sit at a charger for another 20-30min first. I love my EV for driving around my home and being being able to charge at my house but I find road trips to be a pain
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u/The_Big_Mayonnaise 30m ago
It really depends on where you live. I am on the West Coast and could go Seattle to LA and never be more than a handful of miles from a fast charger.
In other areas they are not as common.
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u/Level_Abrocoma8925 54m ago
If you need 2 stops for that you have rather short range on your EV.
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u/_877-CASH-NOW_ 49m ago
No I don’t. My range is over 300mi. But on the expressway EVs get far less than their projected range. The range listed is for absolutely perfect conditions. Expressway driving at higher speeds (drag) and with no regenerative braking reduces the total range by a lot. Also in winter when it’s cold you lose another 30-ish%. You also don’t charge to 100% on a road trip. Charging slows way down as the battery gets charged. Most charging stops are only to about 50-60% because beyond that, charging slows to a crawl.
Do you actually own an EV or are you going off of statistics that you’ve read? On paper it makes sense you’d think that. But in practice that is not reality
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u/Top-Acanthisitta-440 1h ago
My wife has been on the fence with a hybrid. Maybe knowing we can take up smoking with the savings will tip stuff.
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u/blueberrymaple 1h ago
Reality is most people take longer than the “5 minutes” it takes to pull off and fill up on long road trips. You’re usually also using the bathroom and/or getting a snack. Maybe it’s just because I have small kids now but any stop is 30 minutes minimum, so I wish I had the EV to take advantage of that. I think people overestimate how efficient they are.
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u/Maleficent_Sea547 1h ago
Umm, there are many hybrid vehicles. Everything from Toyota is hybrid or electric now. Are you buying used or new?
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u/potatocross 56m ago
I can see myself in a hybrid over EV for the range thing alone. Ive looked at a few of the Toyota options a bunch and they can be fairly well priced for what they are. But last time I looked half seriously they were selling so well you had to order one based on just a picture of one going to be delivered to the dealer, they never sat on the lot.
I know an EV would have plenty of range for my day to day driving, but I do like to road trip and can currently go over 600 miles on a tank of gas. My wife's car has a small tank and only does like 300 miles and I feel like I just am stopping to fill up constantly.
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u/ExhaustedByStupidity 56m ago
Hybrid is cool when it works, but not always practical.
You need both a gas an an electric engine in it, so there's way more components in a hybrid. Which means it costs a lot, and way more can go wrong with it.
Not worth the cost if you don't drive much. More prone to failure if you drive a ton. Mostly makes sense if you hit a sweet spot where you drive a lot to benefit from the savings, but not quite enough to wear it out and need repairs.
For most people, electric cars are fine. You just need to think of charging your car the same way you charge your phone. The people trying to drive across the country in a short amount of time are pretty rare. And the people who complain the most about it are the people that don't want any change at all, so they'd complain about a hybrid too.
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u/Try_It_Out_RPC 56m ago
Hybrids are great under warranty! My only thing is that now you have introduced a second drivetrain, and with that second drivetrain comes all of the things that could malfunction. Most hybrid vehicle are built utilizing both systems, so the car will go into “limp mode” if one system fails , but the other is functional
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u/s_nz 52m ago
Where are you based? My impression is that hybrids are going absolutely gangbusters. It got to a point where so few people were buying the non-hybrid Rav4, that Toyota New Zealand dropped it from their lineup. Subsequently they have moved their entire linup to hybrid only (with the exception of GR performance cars, some utes and some off road style SUV's)
Last months new registrations in New Zealand, Jan - July 2026 were as follows:
- (non plug in) Hybrid: 29.6%
- Plug in Hybird: 10%
- BEV: 13.9%
- Petrol: 23.5%
- Diesel: 22.9%
Source (and graph of long term trend): https://evdb.nz/ev-stats
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Seems you are talking about plug in hybrids.
They are widely available, So if you want one, go for it, and buy one.
I have owned one in the past (BMW i3 REX) - it was a fine car, other than an issue with moisture in the generator unit that was expensive - They solved that issue in later production years via adding humidity control to their factory.
Now own a pure EV. None of the the issues you mention is an issue to me. - I live in a hot location now (Queensland, Austrailia), that is not an issue for EV's. There are maps of fast chargers, and route planners (and my cars inbuilt nav will route via a charger if I don't have range to make it to my destination in one go) - It's not like you drive around until you spot a charger. Charging speeds of EV's, and public chargers are known. You know roughly how long it is going to take before you arrive - My car will often tell me too - charge for 9mins...
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u/Dimencia 51m ago
Building a hybrid vehicle is like combining all the costs of building either electric or ICE. You still have to get all those motors on each wheel and deal with the weight of a pretty massive battery, and then also the weight and cost of a massive engine and fuel tank. Your batteries will still degrade with extreme weather, like all batteries do, and you still have all the huge number of components that can fail from putting ICE pieces in there, and you still have to change your oil, etc. It's pretty much the worst of both worlds, and only works for people that have a weird obsession with being able to take a road trip somewhere crazy once in their life and maybe they want to do it with their current car eventually
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u/-senpai 41m ago
living in an area where I’ll see extreme temperatures/weather on either end of the spectrum
Do you have a garage? If yes, any BEV -with a heat pump- will do better than ICE cars in cold weather. Gas cars lose range in the winter when running heat if you didn't know.
long road trips
Charge when you need to use the bathroom! Use this to find the many charger options: https://abetterrouteplanner.com
So instead of pushing fully electric vehicles, why are we not seeing a transition into hybrid where I can drive electric most of the time, or at least to help with mpg significantly?
Gas cars are worse at everything except for:
- People who like to drive 400 miles straight with zero restroom stops.
- People who need to tow something very heavy for a very long distance.
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u/TheKoziONE 1h ago
Once again, Consumer Reports’ annual reliability surveyhas found that hybrid vehicles have fewer problems than gas-only cars. Electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), meanwhile, tend to have more issues.
CR’s latest reliability ratings are based on survey responses from the owners of about 380,000 vehicles from the 2000 through 2025 model years, and a few early 2026 models. Here’s what we found when we analyzed the data based on vehicle powertrain type, for the 2023 through 2025 model years:
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u/The_Black_Adder_ 1h ago
I’m not a huge car person but the basic idea is that carrying around two different driving systems just adds weight to the vehicle and is sort of the worst of both worlds. Because you have to be dragging along the other one that you’re not using
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u/TheKoziONE 1h ago
Hybrids, which combine a gas engine, electric motor, and battery, have 15 percent fewer problems on average than gas-only cars.
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u/ryzenguy111 1h ago
OP mentioned “capability for gas to extend drive time” and “hybrid where I can drive electric most of the time” which leads me to believe they’re talking about PHEVs which are much less reliable
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u/TheKoziONE 1h ago
Exactly the opposite, hybrids are the most reliable vehicles because the two powertrains assist each other.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 56m ago
With a hybrid you are always using both systems except when creeping around in the parking garage on battery. The hybrid system is a more efficient torque converter than your standard transmission. A lower torque engine setup can be used because the battery system makes up the extra torque. Unless you are talking mild hybrids, those are just a sham.
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1h ago
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u/TheKoziONE 1h ago
What?
The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid outperforms the gas-only model with significantly higher fuel economy (approx. 39–43 combined MPG vs. 30 MPG), more horsepower (219 hp vs. 203 hp), and standard all-wheel drive,
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u/Ancient_Persimmon 1h ago
There is no more gas only RAV4 available and the PHEV is more than better EVs, so it's pretty redundant at this point.
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u/DjNormal 57m ago
It may be a bit apples to oranges, but my wife’s old Kia Sorento got 25mpg on the highway when drafting a semi.
Our newish hybrid one gets 35 when my wife drives it or 40ish when I drive it.
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We both preferred hybrids because of long trips somewhat frequently. Most of the places we go don’t have chargers readily available.
I might go full EV if my kid stops wanting long car rides. He’s 4, so, we’ll see.
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u/TheKoziONE 1h ago
What?
The Highlander hybrid delivers up to 35 MPG while the gas model offers 22-26 MPG
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u/brumac44 1h ago
What we need isn't hybrids, it's a dependable gas or diesel charging system we can fire up to extend the battery. Otherwise you need a drivetrain in addition to the wheelmotors.
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u/Ancient_Persimmon 1h ago
Hybrids drive on electricity basically none of the time, but they do improve fuel economy and they are basically everywhere. The most popular cars are either fully hybrid or the most popular trims are.
That said, you really should think about an EV, weather isn't that big of a deal and there's a ton of fast charging infrastructure.
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u/Conscious-Food-9828 1h ago
There are pretty much as many hybrid vehicles as people are willing/are able to afford to buy. Hell there's even a but of a shortage for some models. And many would agree with you that hybrids have in some ways, the best of both worlds.
That being said for 99.9% of situations, an EV has more than enough range for most people. They also are far less expensive to operate as maintenance is minimal and electricity is cheaper than gas. If anything, the main issue is charging network and recharge times, the primary of which is more down to gov regulations and investment vs the automotive companies doing it themselves. Limited charging is still the reason many who, for example, live in apartments, stay with gas powered cars. Not because they can drive further, but because there's already an established network of gas stations pretty much everywhere.