Is 2021 the year to buy a hybrid?
Boolaroo's Col Maybury - an octogenarian human hybrid himself [of man and machine] - reckons so. Well actually, he reckoned 2020 was the year. He bought a hybrid a week ago.
The hybrid market began quite a while back with the not-so cool named Toyota Prius. Nowadays, there's loads of them.
Hybrids still use petrol, but much less than standard vehicles. They're essentially a step along the way to the promised land of a decarbonised economy, fully electric vehicles and hydrogen made from clean energy.
Most of us are still cruising along in our petrol and diesel vehicles, oblivious of the hybrids and full electric vehicles on offer and their decreasing prices.
Full electric vehicles are still pretty pricey, as are most plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
Col said he didn't consider buying a full electric vehicle because "I don't think we're ready for it".
"There aren't enough charging stations."
Hybrids though, have fallen in price. He paid $31,000 for his Toyota Corolla hybrid, paying $23,000 while receiving $8000 for trading in his old Hyundai.
With hybrid vehicles, the electric motor continues to generate power during deceleration or when braking. This power is stored in the vehicle's battery to keep it charged.
The battery is recharged while driving, so it's always ready to go without needing to be plugged in.
When accelerating or cruising at high speed, the petrol engine turns on automatically for extra power.
When stationary or driving in city traffic, the vehicle can automatically switch to electric mode using zero fuel and dramatically reducing carbon emissions.
"It uses far less fossil fuels," Col said.
"It has all sorts of electronics and you can hardly hear a sound. It's very nice and smooth to drive."
He said the vehicle can sense other vehicles around it and has the ability to "take over and slow itself down".
"If it goes over the lane, it steers itself back onto the road again," he said.
At times, he said, it can be "a little bit disconcerting".
"It says things like: 'You are entering a school zone. You are in a school zone. You are now leaving a school zone'."
And if you're wondering how Col is a hybrid of man and machine, don't worry he doesn't have a computer chip in his brain ... yet. But as the Hunter's pre-eminent astronomy expert, he certainly is a machine when he operates that telescope to gaze at the stars.
Saving on Fuel
Troy Whiteside told Topics that he had driven two different Toyota Camry hybrids - leased through the company he works for.
Asked how much petrol they saved, he said "heaps".
He now drives a non-hybrid Toyota RAV-4.
"The difference is phenomenal. I'm forever filling this thing up," he said, adding that he commutes often to Sydney and back.
"I used to fill up once a fortnight [with the hybrids], now it's twice a week.
"I know nothing about cars, but I know when the fuel light comes on I have to fill up. I'm sick of seeing the fuel light on this RAV-4."
When he first picked up a Camry hybrid, he thought he'd have to charge it at home.
"My company's not going to pay for that," he told the car salesman, who calmly assured him it was not a plug-in hybrid.
