Hybrid v Diesel cars: which is better?

Studies have found that if you drive a diesel car outside congested cities then you may get more miles per gallon out of it than a hybrid car especially if you often drive on the motorway. In this article GoMotorTrade explains about the electric car v diesel cars...

The hybrid cars are known to most people as being more efficient than petrol or diesel vehicles because the battery power is used for gentle acceleration and when breaking the vehicle recaptures some energy.

When it comes to the hustle and bustle of urban driving these cars are perfect, but they have been found to be less efficient for driving on the motorways or accelerating at higher speeds unlike diesel cars.

The manufacturers tend to focus on the battery and making it as efficient as possible but forget to think about the development of the engines. The official test for the car's performance is always carried out at low speeds meaning consumers are potentially being fed false information about the miles per gallon delivered by the cars.

Nick Molden, who works for Emissions Analytics, has said: "We are not saying hybrids are great or they are terrible – they have a particular role to play and for that they are good, but if you put it to the wrong use you can find it is worse than having a frugal diesel engine.

"To some extent the hybrids have had the aura that they are unquestionably a good thing, the general feel out there is that if you have a hybrid you are doing something that is unquestionably good for the planet and that’s not necessarily true, and it’s not necessarily good for your wallet."

Emissions Analytics and What Car? had experts performing ‘real-world’ driving tests on popular petrol hybrids and compared them to eight diesel cars using engines ranging from 1.5 to 2.2 litres.

The tests showed that the hybrids had good fuel economy but the diesel cars outperformed them even after taking into consideration the battery charge levels.

The better of the two hybrids tested, the Toyota Auris delivered an average of 58.7 miles per gallon which is less than the Skoda Octavia, Peugeot 308, Mazda 3 and more standard diesel models.

Experts have done tests on hundreds of vehicles during different times and in different conditions which showed that hybrids suited the city centre conditions better than the diesel car but wasn’t very efficient for high speed driving.

"Hybrids may deliver good but not best-in-class fuel economy, but they are typically the cleanest, and if you are a light-footed, congested-town driver, they are ideal," Mr Molden said.

"But if you are a motorway cruiser, you are working mostly on the engine and running on a relatively inefficient petrol engine. It is about matching the vehicle to the job."

www.gomotortrade.co.uk