Why the future is hybrd?

Hybrid cars are more than a rest-stop on the road to the hydrogen car. Why has the Toyota Prius become the car industry's most talked about product? The second-generation Prius, launched in 2003, won some of the industry's most prestigious awards--it has just been named European Car of the Year 2005--and generated a buzz out of all proportion to the car's prevalence on the roads. The success of the Prius has taken Toyota by surprise. While that number is still only one-quarter of last year's sales for America's most popular Toyota model, the Camry, it shows that consumers are willing to pay a premium for clean, environmentally friendly cars--as long as there is no need to compromise on performance. A study by the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which looked at energy use over the course of a vehicle's life, predicts that by 2020, diesel hybrids could achieve the same energy-efficiency and greenhouse-gas emissions as fuel-cell cars powered by hydrogen made from natural gas.

Referencia: Economist, 12/4/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8404, Special Section p26-30, 5p, 2 Color Photographs, 1 Diagram, 1 Graph