Hybrid cars are very popular vehicles in today's society. Hybrid cars combine the power of a gasoline engine with the environmental benefits of an electric engine to create what most consider being a better car. There are essentially two different types of hybrid cars on today's market. One type uses the gasoline engine to charge a battery. The battery then runs the electric motor in the car. The gasoline engine is reserved for situations where power is required. Another type never fully runs on the electric motor, but reserves that for situations where the car requires more power. Hybrid cars offer thirty to fifty miles per gallon of gasoline, and a host of special features that make them quite competitive with regular cars. They also, though, a price tag of three to five thousand dollars more than a typical car and waiting lists of six months to two years. There are, though, three good reasons to purchase a hybrid, despite the waiting list.

One excellent reason to purchase a hybrid car is to save money. Gas prices have been skyrocketing for the past two years. It hasn't been unusual over the course of the last several months to pay between two and three dollars per gallon of gasoline. If you live in a city or do an extensive amount of city driving, a hybrid is the car for you. Because some hybrids function on electric power only at low speeds, no gas is used during city driving. That means you could get up to fifty miles per gallon of gasoline just by driving to work each day. Since most traditionally built cars get less than twenty miles to a gallon of gasoline, you could be saving some serious cash. Some hybrids can go more than six hundred miles in between fill-ups, and that could save you more than six hundred and fifty dollars at the gas pump each year.

Another strong reason to purchase a hybrid car is to reduce pollution. City style driving is hard on a vehicle. As a result, cars produce more pollution while sitting in city traffic. Hybrid vehicles were built for this kind of a situation. Most hybrids produce ninety percent less harmful emissions than traditional vehicles do. Moreover, because many states are cracking down on emissions laws, this can save you in the long run. The government, both state and federal, offers tax incentives to purchase a hybrid vehicle. The internal revenue service alone offers up to one thousand dollars in the Clean Fuel Vehicle Tax Deduction program. Other local and state agencies offer similar deductions just to purchase a car that will help reduce pollution in our cities and neighborhoods. Additionally, it will help you feel good to know that you, personally, are doing something that will help our nation clear the air and eliminate the toxins we have spent so long adding to the atmosphere.

One final reason to purchase a hybrid car is to end dependency on oil as a power source. Oil powers everything from our homes to our cars. As a result, the United States is one of the leading countries in the demand for oil. This places us in a seriously problematic situation, as we cannot completely provide the oil we need for ourselves. Auto makers have continually pushed for more oil dependent cars like sport utility vehicles, large trucks, and minivans. Americans have bought into the bigger is better auto craze. The demand for oil goes up every day. Purchasing a hybrid, though, helps to tell the people around you as well as the government and the auto makers that you personally want fuel efficient technology that will stop robbing our natural resources and those of other countries as well as a fuel source that is not dependent on the help of other countries. Oil costs billions of dollars not only to purchase, but also to secure in trade agreements, to deal with the politics of other nations, and to find peaceful solutions to terrorist issues that change the oil supply. Those billions of dollars could find homes for other programs in our nation if we did not require as much oil.

Hybrid cars are one step to changing the way we think about driving. There are a number of excellent reasons to purchase a hybrid.