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Byron @ Jan 30th 2006 11:21AM
Curious response by California DMV. My understanding is for vechicle's of the same weight and engine size, there is little to no difference in actual highway fuel mileage between hybrids and conventional cars. Its the start and stop of city driving where the differences are clear. Regenerative braking, and electric assist from stop are non-issues in highway cruising. A similarly effective incentive might be to provide tax and/or HOV incentives for 4 cylinder cars, cars under 3,000 pounds and diesels. All may be too difficult or costly to administer. In the end the easiest, but most difficult politically, is to add a greater tax on every gallon of gasoline.
Claudia @ Mar 14th 2008 1:27PM
Well sad my friend. The logic behind institiuting a much higher gas tax is unquestionable, but so if the political difficulty and the problems of inequity that arise.
One thing I think is worth mentioning is that, although you are right that it is their start-stop driving that makes hybrids more efficient, there is another feature that makes them worthy of special treatment: that is the actual pollutants they emit. This is in addition to the low greenhouse gas emissions that are the result of high gas mileage; they actually put out less of the other polluting (but not necessarily greehouse) gases as well.
But in any case, I agree that the highway-based incentive might not be the most reasonable...even though I would like to ignore that since I drive a hybrid.