In spite of their segment leadership both Honda Insight and Toyota Prius do not win the top gasoline-electric hybrid sedans for fuel mileage. For mere 41 miles per gallon in city driving and 36 mpg on the highway, averaging city/highway mileage of 39 mpg; the midsize 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and its sibling 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid easily beat the market leaders. Pricing wise they even undercut the similar class of Toyota Camry Hybrid.
The Mexican built US Hybrid Sedans have even more extra features compare to the competitor, such as intuitive eco driving metering device on its eye-catching instrument panel, power driver and front-passenger leather seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, voice recognition system, CVT (Ford Fusion’s only transmission option) as well as standard 17-inch wheels and tires.
The trend for true hybrid fashion is a couple of metering gauges informing; the current state of generated kW, the level of energy left in the battery and a power meter shows what kind of electric charge is being used (either regenerative braking or else).
An alternative Hybrid Sedan at similar pricing to Ford Fusion would be Nissan Altima Hybrid also equipped with extra gadgetry, perhaps to counteract its unfortunate many safety recalls in the past two years. Whatever hybrid’s perceived values is determined largely by its brand, no matter how efficient one particular model from any maker; in the end the sales figures talk. Prius for the compact segment, Camry Hybrid on midsize and as for the luxury segment Lexus HS250h hybrid; the HS250h has surpassed its target by 20 times! Toyota Motor Corp. had received 10,000 orders in last August alone, beating its modest target of merely 500 monthly production targets.
A true green eco friendly car would be a car without oil burning engine at all; where as Hybrid technology retains motoring practicality a pure electric vehicle has still limited range.
However amidst the persistent rumors, Mercedes has now finally announced that an electric version of SLS AMG Gullwing will go into production, though they did not reveal any information regarding production schedule for their first electric sport car as yet. Apart of optimum weight distribution by strategically positioning all battery packs in the center of the car’s mass gravity, its performance will not only match its standard petrol engined sibling; but with the massive torque of 880Nm it definitely surpasses in the area of flexible drivability. Battery charging is attained via both ac plug-in and regenerative braking.
Though in terms of energy efficiency a diesel engine may surpass its petrol engine sibling, there is yet a new segment to be exploit for Diesel Hybrid. Electric motor may have huge torque at 1 rpm, yet for the purpose of 4 wheel driving a Diesel power plant is hard to beat. Hence logic would tell should there be any Electric Mercedes Benz G Wagen in the near future!
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