Hybrids can be a hard pill to swallow. They seem likely to prove only a “band-aid” type fix to what is happening with our global transportation problems. Sure a electric motor helping a gasoline motor makes a lot of sense if your trying to make the motor efficient and consume less fuel. But the resounding problem seems to be that it runs on fossil fuels to begin with. That’s why people keep throwing around the word dependence. As in a dependence on oil.

Gasoline engines depend on the fuel that powers them and since we depend on those engines, well you see where I’m going…. Without fuel these technological wonders of mechanical engineering go nowhere, they are literally standing still.

So by creating an engine that does not depend on oil, foreign or domestic, you would be relieving a butt-load of problems. With out the massive need for oil, there would be a lot of issues that could translate to a lot of money lost in a lot of industry’s around the globe.

Ah, yes, money. It really is the root of all evil, huh? It it precisely money that holds back our civilization from advancing, and so it holds true with the automobile. The hybrid auto ends up being just a example of how people give in. It is just the gasoline engine holding on, not letting go.

It’s 2009 people. Electric cars have been around for years. Not hybrid, full on electric power, and that’s just one alternative. GM had the EV-1 in the early 90’s. A full electric, mass production vehicle that was sold through Saturn dealers.

That’s right, while you were watching a new episode of Seinfeld, General Motors had a full electric vehicle for sale in it’s dealerships. That was almost 20 years ago. Think about that for a sec. The thing was even faster than most sports cars for Pete’s sake!

But alas, money gets in the way. Auto manufacturing is a business first, don’t ever forget that. The primary goal here is to make money. Lot’s and lot’s of money. Therefore, one must come to the conclusion that if General Motors were to drop the EV-1 development program and shift those resources and that manpower to build, let’s say Hummers, then it is doing so to make more, you guessed it, money. It truly is a ruthless business…..

People always ask me, “So R.J , what’s the real deal with hybrids?” Well the truth about hybrids is they’re not a solution at all. They are a stop-gap if you will to much better technology, but more important, conscious recognition by the people of an alternative mode of transports is a necessity.

Hybrids help the situation right now, that’s all. Even if your car gets 45mpg instead of 25mpg your still feeding the very problem that the hybrids tout to fight. Your still running on fossil fuels. Your still burning gas and polluting the planet we all share.

What those holding this technology back do not know is that the change is inevitable. You really cannot stop it. You sure can delay the heck out of it, but nothing stops change. Hybrids are not the answer. They are a quick solution to an ever more recognizable problem.

That is the truth about hybrids.