Hybrid Vehicles - a car buff seeking automotive redemption

In the spirit of my eternal quest to bring you the information about every single rebate, tax credit, or advantage of hybrid car ownership comes this latest piece of news from Pennsylvania.

State authorities had been running a rebate scheme for hybrid car owners - however the budgeted amount was depleted by March of this year.

The legislature announced today that an additional 3 million dollars has been set aside to continue the rebate scheme. Importantly, people who purchased a vehicle during the suspension period will still be eligible to claim the rebate. Note that this rebate scheme is separate from the Federally funded grants for their shortlist of vehicles I blogged about earlier.

Information about the Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant can be found here (note that the website is out-of-date and doesn’t reflect the new grant information.

Application forms for the grant can be found here (may require a login)

Please don’t be shocked at the size of the guidelines (38 pages!!) The complexity for applying for these kind of grants for hybrid vehicle purchases is in my opinion a major barrier to ensuring greater uptake.

I don’t think it warrants a post of its own - but if anybody would like guidance in filling out the forms - drop me an email on mark.kitchener@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to help out.

technorati tags:pennsylvania, hybrid, automobile, vehicle, car, grant, credit, rebate, bonus, environment, tax

Less than 20 minutes after this post - someone emailed to ask me to justify my statement about hybrid cars being less efficient than standard fuel vehicles when travelling for long distances.

A hybrid car’s advantage in town traffic is three-fold

1. They use no fuel when coasting

2. They recover energy during frequent breaking - this can be used for acceleration

3. They don’t use any fuel when stationary.

However, in situations where a vehicle will be cruising at a standard speed for long distances they are no necessarily any more efficient than a standard fuel vehicle because they are carrying extra weight in batteries, motors and control systems.

technorati tags:hybrid, car, vehicle, automobile, fuel, efficiency, environment, gas

Following up from Yesterday’s post about the dangers of over-selling hybrid technology - I felt it was as good a time as any to list the top 5 reasons you wouldn’t buy a hybrid (in no particular order)

1. The higher upfront cost (up to $6000) of a Hybrid can take over six years for the average American to recoup due to improve mileage. Most people do not keep their car this long.

2. Smaller hybrid engines operate at higher RPM’s - and therefore break more easily

3. The battery in a hybrid car lasts only 4-5 years - and is very expensive to replace.

4. Specialised drive-trains and parts means that many mechanics are unable to service hybrid vehicles.

5. Hybrids are only more efficient in urban situations - if you spend a reasonable amount of time driving long distances-  there is little difference in mileage.

Stay turned tomorrow for the top 5 reasons you would want to buy a hybrid.