With gas prices threatening to break household budgets all over America, more and more families are looking at hybrid vehicles as a way to save on gas and lower their driving costs. Indeed, hybrid vehicles do offer some pretty impressive mileage ratings. According the U.S. Department of Energy's fueleconomy.gov website, the best of the bunch from the 2011 lineup is still the Toyota Prius which offers an impressive 51 miles per gallon in the city and 48 mpg on the highway. The rest of the small four cylinder hybrids fall somewhere between 43 mpg and 33 mpg. Hybrids, however, aren't the only way to get that kind of fuel economy.
Fuel efficiency has been a big development focus for most of the major auto manufacturers. They've been doing everything they can from eliminating the extra 26 pounds of the spare donut tire in favor of a re-inflation device, to redesigning transmissions to lower the amount of energy wasted between the engine and the road. While most of these improvements are relatively small when taken by themselves, together they can add up to significant fuel savings that matches most hybrids and even beats some of them at least in terms of highway driving.
Ford's new Focus SFE, for example, is rated for 40 mpg on the highway, a figure that matches or exceeds all but the top four hybrids according to the DOE's comparison chart for 2011. For city driving, though, hybrids have the clear advantage. That's because many of them recycle some of the energy that would otherwise be wasted through a process called regenerative braking. Which, simply put, just means that the wheels are slowed in part by making them turn a small generator motor that recharges the hybrid's batteries, energy that can be used later to help power the drive train and increase the effective gas mileage of the vehicle.
With either type of car, knocking a few miles per hour off your cruising speed is one of the most effective and easiest ways to increase your vehicle's fuel efficiency. According to information published by CleanAirForce.org, driving just five miles per hour over the speed limit actually cuts your engine's efficiency by 6%. That's a loss of more than two miles per gallon for these economy vehicles.
A smart shopper who does their research ahead of time can find a few hybrids that match highly fuel efficient non-hybrids in terms of sticker price, so the economic choice really comes down to individual driving habits. A driver who spends more of their driving hours commuting in city traffic or lined up bumper to bumper at an exit ramp is going to be able to take full advantage of a hybrid's regenerative braking and get maximum fuel economy from a good hybrid. Drivers who spend more of their time driving at full highway speeds may actually get better mileage with a highly fuel-efficient non-hybrid vehicle.