The Environmental Protection Agency announced an overhaul in the way it estimates fuel economy Tuesday, a move that could severely impact the ratings of some hybrids. For regular gasoline cars, ratings will fall an average of 10 to 20 percent, but for hybrids the drop is larger — an average of 20 to 30 percent. Meanwhile, another idea has popped up in the world of hybrids that promises to offer consumers more choice, but also threatens to negate much of the benefit of a hybrid. According to a report published by Edmunds, Toyota may offer a “green or speed” switch that enables owners to alternate between fuel-economy and high-performance modes. The Leftlane Perspective: With new EPA fuel ratings and “speed” switches, is the benefit of a hybrid quickly eroding? It will be interesting to see fuel economy numbers in the future with all these factors weighed.
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01/11, 2:15 PM
posted by:
mike
The new rating system doesn’t contribute to the erosion of the hybrid value. It’s just making the numbers a little more realistic, thereby reducing the percieved value, but does not change the actual value at all.