17 April

Hybrids are marketed to the public almost exclusively as fuel-saving vehicles. Some reflections on driving one now for nearly a year, and why I think that marketing is a mistake. Firstly because for quite a few manufacturers, they don’t save a lot of fuel, they haven’t done the engineering development and just throw together the petrol and electric without much actual ‘hybrid’ going on. But a much more important reason is that the true genius of a hybrid is one that petrolheads should love. They’re the ultimate performance vehicle. Have posted before about how they use the strengths of electric and petrol motors to deliver maximum torque and power across the entire rev range. No petrol, diesel or even EV can match them for that. It’s why F1 cars are hybrid, and high performance sports cars. It’s glorious in an ordinary car, maximum torque and power at every speed. When you drive a (Toyota) hybrid the power is always just there, smoothly appearing to meet the demand, without any of the mad see-saw, yo-yo revving you get in geared cars working their way up and down the gears, struggling to reach peak power on the torque/power band. The vehicle just glides along, with instant torque and power when you need it. You hear the petrol engine revving, but not to drive the wheels, just to generate energy, which the onboard computer then blends with energy from the battery to feed you precisely the power you need, at every moment. Via the magic in the pic below, the hybrid synergy drive, with its 4 clutches and planetary gear set. It’s like you’re floating along the road. Put your foot down and the car explodes with acceleration. At every speed. You’ll also use half the fuel. It’s astonishing in so many ways that we weren’t all driving these years ago.