Hybrid cars don’t save you money (part II)

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This post badly needs an update, since it assumes that gas costs $2/gallon.

What would be interesting is to figure out how high gas prices should go to make hybrid cars worth the extra money you pay for them.

The Cost savings and environment benefits aside, I am going to get a hybrid car, as it allows me to get onto the carppol lane (in Calif. atleast) and get that extra hour to 2 to do what I like.

At $3/gallon, it would take 8.2 years to break even given the case I used in the original article.

Furthermore, if gas cost $24.71/gallon, you would break even in 1 year.

$12.35/gallon, 2 years
$8.24/gallon, 3 years
$6.18/gallon, 4 years
$4.94/gallon, 5 years
$4.12/gallon, 6 years
$3.53/gallon, 7 years
and, as I mentioned above,
$3.00/gallon, 8.2 years

See the attached spreadsheet for my calculations, and to do your own.

Gas is $2.02 where I live.

You mentioned the Clean-Fuel Vehicle Deduction, which nearly everyone owning a Hybrid should be able to get (you made it sound like not everyone can).

However, that is a $2,000 DEDUCTION, not a CREDIT. Therefore, it means your AGI goes down by $2,000, which means the net amount you save is ~$700 (assuming a combined Federal + State Tax of 35%). (I got that by doing 2000 * 0.35.)

Therefore, by your original calculations, you would not break even in under 4 years. It would still take about 9.4 years.

Environmental benefits are never black and white. Consider this article from the New Scientist on the effects of hybrid vehicles on the Amazon rainforests.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18825265.400.html

Plug-in Hybrid cars have their own economics in my opinion. The break even analysis will be more favorable then. I guess we have to wait a couple of years before they go mainstream.

Thanks for adding some measurements to your article.