Future auto trends: hybrid cars

The craze at the moment as far as the purchase of automobiles is concerned is the purchasing of hybrid automobiles. The Prius is the most obvious and celebrated example of this but the fact of the matter is that everywhere you look people are turning to hybrid automobiles as an answer for their current fuel problems. However, looking at the long term, are they really that good?

Hybrid automobiles are cars that have a conventional combustion engine while at the same time having an electric engine that can share the load some of the time. The usual end result is that fuel efficiency is doubled and therefore gas prices for a person are effectively cut in half. This is a very elegant solution at the current moment in time since it has the practical effect over the course of a month's worth of buying gas of restoring the cost to its location a few years ago.

That having been said, what happens in the future when gas prices double? When gas prices double, people that have purchased hybrid automobiles will be in the exact same boat they were in just before purchasing the hybrid to begin with. Of course one would hope that technology would progress in the time and that the person would have enough cash to unload their hybrid and switch to something else when the time comes, but if we are unlucky enough to see gas prices double in the next year that does not seem like a financial reality for most people.

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