Question: Is there a high cost to constructing and running the hybrids and how does the cost to run the hybrid compare to a car these days that runs on diesel?

Omar Mustufvi answered on 15 Mar 2012:

Very good question. For a business it is important to consider how much the development and manufacturing costs will be for new technologies otherwise it would be hard to make money.

The main difference between a conventional vehicle and a hybrid is the battery, and at the moment these are very heavy and very expensive (the good ones contain rare elements). So for the moment a typical Hybrid will cost around £5- 10k above that of a conventional vehicle which is too much for a lot of customers! Batteries also have the problem of degradation- over time they become less and less efficient until they are completely useless (you may have seen the same thing happen in laptops) so after 8 years or so you will need a completely new one which is also unattractive to the customer.

Comparing a hybrid to diesel cars is difficult because it depends on the hybrid- you can get ones with small batteries which have about 15% fuel savings or ones with huge batteries (that you can also plug in to charge) which will drive for 20 or more miles purely on electric power. As an example the Nissan Leaf is a pure electric vehicle and you can drive 100 miles with it fully charged, this will cost you about £1 in electricity compared to about £10 for a diesel car.