Hybrids everywhere

IHT recently had an article about Honda's big push into the hybrid market with their Prius-beating new Insight model. As the article mentions, the Insight is quite a bit cheaper than the Prius and hopes to steal market share from the Prius through this advantage. Lower cost does come at a price though, as the environmental performance isn't as good as Prius (which in turn, isn't as good as say, all electric vehicles.) Honda however is counting on the idea that people now WANT to be identified with a Hybrid car, and are proud to drive them around.

"Instead of the more complicated hybrid system used in the Prius, the Insight’s main source of power is a lightweight gasoline engine that is assisted by smaller batteries. That greatly reduces manufacturing costs but gives the Insight a highway fuel efficiency of 5.5 liters per 100 kilometers, or 43 miles per gallon — about 4 percent worse than that of the Prius. The Insight also shares parts with other Honda models, which helps the carmaker keep costs to a minimum." (full article here)

Inherent in this business strategy is the idea that people actually don't care as much about the real environmental benefits of their hybrid cars, but instead care more about showing that they care. As paradoxical as that statement is. Indeed, this is probably what's behind some of the more ridiculous "green machines" that I've seen recently, including the Hybrid Cadillac Escalade, an uber-luxury SUV that gets something like a whopping 21mpg. I mean, who are we kidding here?

I'm just as happy as the next tree-hugger to see more cars being produced that will finally drive our fuel economy figures up - but aren't we running a really dangerous line between going in the right direction and intentionally misleading ourselves? Sure, you can feel good that you're driving a HYBRID SUV, but you're still polluting the environment 2-3x as much with every mile you drive as some guy driving a Smart or a Prius.