Originally Posted by
culver
Note the difference in mileage between the hybrid Civic and non-hybrid Civic. The total mileage difference wasn't that great. Admittedly, the Civic's hybrid system was not as sophisticated as that used by Toyota and Ford so one should expect a bigger gap with a better system. Anyway, the hybrid Civic not only cost more but forced the buyer to opt for high profit trim items thus allowing Honda to likely hide some of the hybrid cost in the profit of things like a nav system.
That is exactly it. Cost to make a hybrid is still high, and thats why most hybrid came loaded with lots of "upgrades", because they need high-margin options in them to make it worthwhile for the OEMs to recover the cost. Original Insight was probably the only "no frills" hybrid car, and it was also significantly less sophisticated than even the original Prius, which means cost to Honda wasn't that high.
If Toyota have a non-hybrid Prius, it'll probably get similar mileage on highway with city mileage taking a hit(where the Hybrid does the most work). But people wouldn't buy it because it is simply a cheap small car. And American don't buy cheap small car. But make it a hybrid, and it becomes, oddly, a status symbol.....and thus its chic to own one.....
One thing I have to add though. I am a fan of Prius, purely as an engineering product. It is brilliant, in that the advancements made between generations are basically the holy grail of engineering, because they improve performance AND efficiency and made it in a much more practical package. But the car as a breed and as a model for the future of "green" motoring, it is just a gimmick for the ignorant public....
Last edited by RacingManiac; 05-20-2009 at 11:41 AM.
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