Hybrid Cars
Why are hybrid cars not able to get better gas mileage than some cars from the early 90s?
Some cars in the early 90s like the civic, geo metro, etc got 50mpg or more. Howcome almost 20 years later, our hybrid technology is not able to significantly outperform these vehicles?
Take a look at the curb weights.
A Civic 4-door from 1984 had a curb weight of 918 kg.
A 2008 Civic 4-door LX has a curb weight of 1194 kg.
Over the years, the cars have grown heavier– They have become bigger and included a lot more safety features.
The 2008 Civic LX is lugging 276 kg of extra weight above the 1984 model (a difference of almost 600 pounds), so gas mileage is going to suffer. Putting in a more efficient hybrid powertrain in the 2008 Civic simply gains back some of that gas mileage lost due to the weight gain.
That’s why you can’t really compare the hybrids today to the cars from 15 years ago– The cars are built to different structural and safety standards.
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