2011 Hybrid and Electric Car Buying Guide

The selection of fuel-saving hybrid-powered vehicles is expanding, and all-new electric-powered models are hitting the road for 2011 and beyond.

Remember hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles? Not long ago they were heralded as the future of clean-burning alternative-fuel cars that would help Americans kick, as former President George W. Bush coined it, their “addiction to gasoline.” Unfortunately, as with flying cars, hydrogen-powered vehicles remain a possibility, but a distant one at that.

Automakers instead have embraced electric power, either to augment a gasoline engine to boost its mileage in the case of hybrid vehicles, or to run a car altogether. Unlike hydrogen, battery/electric power requires neither a new infrastructure of fueling sources nor a reinvention of a car’s power source. It’s easier and more profitable for an automaker to convert an existing vehicle into a hybrid than to engineer a new model with a largely unavailable source of power. Electric motors have been around since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and recent gains in battery technology enable electric vehicles to now boast practical operating ranges that can at least suffice for an owner’s daily commute.

Hybrid-powered vehicles use a conventional gasoline engine as the primary source of power, with an electric motor/generator typically able to run the vehicle at lower speeds and augment the gas engine at other times. A hybrid’s battery pack is self-charging, recovering energy that’s otherwise lost via braking and decelerating, which means it never has to be plugged in to operate. What’s more, a hybrid automatically powers down the engine at idle—when a car essentially gets zero miles per gallon--to further preserve fuel. A so-called “mild” hybrid simply includes the automatic shutdown feature.

The downside is that a hybrid typically costs several thousand dollars more than a comparable conventional model, a tariff that owners may or may not be able to recover over a normal ownership cycle. And at that, automakers tend to load their hybrids up with features, which further drives up the price. Federal tax credits are offered to help offset the added expense, though such credits have already been depleted for models from Toyota/Lexus, Honda, and Ford/Lincoln/Mercury.

The iconic Toyota Prius is not only the best selling hybrid, it’s also the fuel economy leader with an estimated 51-city/48-highway mpg. For 2011 Toyota is introducing a plug-in version of the Prius with a new lithium-ion battery that enables all-electric operation at higher speeds and longer distances. As the name implies, it needs to be tethered to a wall socket at night to reach a full charge that will enable it to achieve a maximum electric-only range of around 13 miles and reach highway speeds up to 60 mph in electric-only mode. For longer distances, the vehicle will operate like a regular gas/electric Prius.

Toyota will be expanding what will eventually become a Prius line of hybrids, starting with a smaller compact model for 2012. Meanwhile, new gas/electric powered rides this year include hybrid versions of the BMW 7 Series, Lincoln MKZ, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and Porsche Panamera luxury sedans, Dodge Ram pickup, Hyundai Sonata midsize sedan, Porsche Cayenne SUV and the new Honda CR-Z two seat sports coupe and Lexus CT 200h compact hatchback.

Also, 2011 sees the first mainstream electric cars being offered to consumers since the General Motors EV-1 ended its brief and controversial run in 1999. The first is the long-awaited Chevrolet Volt. Chevy calls it an “extended range electric vehicle,” in that a small gasoline engine runs a generator to power the car’s electric motor once the onboard batteries have been depleted (it can run solely on electric power for about 40 miles on a charge). While it adds complexity and cost to this futuristically designed midsize sedan, it makes the Volt practical for more than just shorter runs; the company recently revealed that a full electric-only version is likewise in the works.

Also coming during 2011 will be the compact Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, which boasts a maximum range of 100 miles. Ford is releasing both an electric version of its small Transit Connect delivery van and a battery-powered version of its next-generation Focus compact car for the 2011 model year. Mitsubishi will also likely debut its MiEV in the U.S. by the end of 2011. While they’re expensive--the Volt is expected to sticker over $35,000, with the Leaf costing around $33,000--electric car buyers will be able to avail themselves of a one-time $7,500 federal income-tax credit to help offset the sticker shock.

Depending on the model, a full battery charge using 220-volt current could take up to eight hours, and much longer on a standard 110-volt circuit. Some sources peg the cost to charge an electric car to be about one-third to one-fourth the cost of gasoline to drive the same car the same distance; many owners will be able to garner a discount for recharging their vehicles overnight, when electric rates are typically at their lowest.

Unfortunately, electric cars have a finite range on a charge, which can vary significantly based on the ambient temperature, traffic and use of accessories like air conditioning. A maximum 100-mile range might be far less under given circumstances, and could strand an unprepared motorist with a depleted battery. Those looking to take longer-range trips, as well as apartment dwellers that may not have access to an electric outlet where they park their cars, facilitate the need for a way to charge their vehicles’ batteries away from home. Unfortunately, an extensive network of remote charging stations has yet to be built.

With new federal regulations mandating that new vehicles become 40 percent more fuel-efficient, on average, by the 2016 model year, we’ll certainly see more hybrid and electric models in dealers’ showrooms to help automaker’s meet their corporate quotas. While lower gas prices and a faltering economy have caused hybrid-car sales to short circuit in the last two years, if gas prices eventually edge they way toward the $5.00/gallon mark, as some predict they might, more buyers will be drawn to them for purely economic reasons.