Energy Insider: Hybrids
|  Video
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| Jacob Kaucher |
| 2/12/2010 |
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| For Richard Anhorn of Minot, one thing fueled his decision to get behind the wheel of a hybrid: "It was gas prices," Anhorn says. And for Anhorn the switch is definitely paying off. He now gets up to 50 miles per gallon. "I went from 24 gallons of gas once a week to 8 gallons of gas once a month and that makes me happy," Anhorn says. There are a few reasons hybrids get much higher gas mileage than conventional cars. First, since hybrids use an electric motor to supplement the engine, they consume less gas right off the bat. Anhorn`s Toyota Prius sometimes shuts down the gas engine completely and runs only on electricity. A Honda Insight on the other hand constantly uses an electric motor so the gas engine does less work. "You can think of it like if you`re driving down the highway and you have a really strong tail wind. It`s just kind of assisting you along," says Steve Miller of Fisher Motors. And hybrids save extra gas when you come to a stop in traffic. "The car will actually realize that and shut off the engine," Miller says. "As soon as you take your foot off the brake to start up again. Put your foot on the gas, it starts up again. It`s seamless." The cars also feature screens on the console that show drivers when their driving style is wasting gas. "The car will kind of teach you how to drive efficiently," Miller says. "And that really seems to help." And for drivers like Anhorn, it all comes back to saving some cash and suffering a little less pain at the pump. "You can go to the Twin Cities on $32 of gas," Anhorn says. "It`s a nice way to do things." |
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