Depends on how you look at it.
The hybrid car is a stop-gap design for the transition between fossil fuel cars and pure electric cars. Hybrid cars only make the fuel go further, but in the end it still relies to gas, diesel, etc to make it go.
Another issue with hybrids is the cost and complexity. You essentially have two power systems on a single vehicle. That increases the materials and weight. Cost is added as well. At the end of the day, a hybrid car will always be more expensive than a conventional internal combustion car.
For most consumers, they don't really care of their car is a conventional car, hybrid, or electric. All they want is for their cars to be reliable, affordable to purchase and cost effective to operate within it's design lifetime. Hybrids currently fail to be affordable to buy and cost effective to operate.
Why did I say fail to be cost effective to operate? Put it this way, if you own a Prius vs a Vios, the Vios will be financially/economically ahead from the time it was purchased up to ten years later (more or less). After operating the Prius for ten years, then it might be cheaper to use the Prius, assuming you don't have to change to battery pack every two to five years. If you don't change the battery pack, the Prius becomes another ordinary fossil fuel burning car.
Making a "green" car is not simply cutting down on emissions, it should also take long hard look at the amount of materials and energy that goes into making the actual vehicle. At the same time, look at the materials themselves if they are toxic to the environment when parts and components come to their end of life cycles.
Consider that, older cars like a Corolla or a Civic or Sentra running on alternative cleaner fuels (like LPG) would actually be better than having a hybrid.



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