Inflated Gas Prices Fuel Sexy Hybrid Fleets

When President Bush announced that America would curb its oil use by 20% in the next five years, nobody stood up and clapped louder than Nick Yost, author of "The Essential Hybrid Car Handbook."

Beyond a small circle of Sierra Club militants and out-of-touch Hollywood celebrities (yes, you, George Clooney!), nobody is counting on a miracle vehicle or radical engine to change the way we get around anytime soon.

That's why Mr. Yost, a veteran automotive journalist, set out to investigate what Americans can expect to drive more frequently over the decades to come. He points to the fact that J.D. Power predicts that hybrids, now at about 2% of the auto market, will constitute 4.2% of the market by 2010.

Hybrid engines — and the cars designed around them — combine the best alternative fuel technologies with the reliability of the internal combustion engine. "In The Essential Hybrid Car Handbook" (Lyons Press, 2006), Mr. Yost drove every hybrid on the market today, and assures even die hard gearheads that hybrids can be fun to drive and easy on the wallet — in the long run, at least.

"Hybrid cars are engineered to extract maximum fuel mileage and the result is that they drive pretty much like transportation appliances," he said."No passion, just practicality. One exception is the expensive Lexus GS 450h, which combines an electric motor with a 292-horsepower, V-6 gasoline engine to produce an exhilarating 339 horsepower."

Mr. Yost warns that lead-footed drivers won't find the Lexus to sip gas. The same goes for the highperformance Honda Accord hybrid. "The extra power and fuel mileage generated by the hybrid powerplant do not warrant its increased cost over the conventional V-6 gasoline engine," he said.

Recently, at a meeting of the International Motor Press Association, a Shell executive said fossil fuels would continue to dominate for another 100 years. Mr. Yost, a director of the association, said in the face of today's alternatives, 100 years is not shocking.

"Ethanol now is produced from corn, which is not only important as a fuel source but also as a food," Mr. Yost said. "If too much of the annual corn crop is converted to fuel, it will affect significantly the price we must pay for the corn we eat. Unfortunately, if all of the corn were turned into ethanol, it still would not be enough to make a serious dent in our dependence on fossil fuels."

This fact covers soybeans as well, which are used to produce biodiesel. These crop limitations explain why neither Shell nor anyone else is able to cut substantially into the country's need for fossil fuels, according to Mr. Yost. "It isn't a question of caring, but of the ability to produce large quantities of biofuels and the ability to produce them at competitive prices," he said.

Car companies are currently turning their sights to hydrogen. "It's the most abundant element on the planet, but there are technological hurdles to overcome in its production and distribution to a suitable network of filling stations," Mr. Yost said. "While some limited use of hydrogen-fueled cars is already underway, experts estimate it could take 10 to 20 years until hydrogen becomes a mainstream fuel."

Some of the fun of doing research for the book went beyond testdriving every hybrid on the road today. In his archival work, Mr. Yost discovered that Ferdinand Porsche was keen on building hybrid cars in 1900.

"The technology fascinates me because it is a way of increasing gasoline mileage almost without penalty," he said. "If saving gasoline were the only benefit, that alone would help to conserve natural resources. But there is a second benefit: The less gasoline you burn, the less pollution comes out the exhaust pipe. It's a win-win situation."