I spent a few hours watching television over the weekend which is a pretty
rare occurrence for me. During the time I was watching, I noticed that most of
the car manufacturers were really trying to get on our good side by inundating
us with ads about Hybrids and Fuel Cell vehicles. High gas prices have
definitely been a sore spot for many Americans recently and I guess this is
their way of trying to show us that they're trying help the situation.
I wonder though, how helpful are they really being?
Fuel Cell vehicles are still many years off and are not currently a viable solution
to the problem. Hybrid cars are here now, and many hybrid versions of
pre-existing models are constantly flowing into the market. This should make
hybrids our current best solution... right?
The car manufacturers would definitely like us to believe that, but I'm not
so sure.
Currently SUVs feature some of the worst MPG ratios and though their hybrid
counterparts do improve on their performance, the benefits are marginal and
still far worse than non-hybrid cars that have been available for years. Cars
like the Civic and Corolla have always been relatively easy on the wallet where
gas is concerned.
I'm definitely a huge advocate of new technologies that reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels and I do believe that hybrid cars are a step in the
right direction but it seems that, right now, auto-manufactures are simply
using them as a way to get into our wallets. They're focusing on 'green' as a
fad and not as a solution.