Hybrid cars have become a household name in all developed countries of the world. Hybrid car technology has been worked upon since early twentieth century. Toyota motors launched the first commercial hybrid car called Prius in 1997. The world saw in hybrid technology a saviour, who would save our environment from the devastating carbon emissions from the automobiles.

Other automakers like Honda and Lexus also developed hybrid cars because the market of hybrid car was bound to grow in the future. The US market is the biggest hybrid car market of the world.

Interestingly, the first electric/petrol hybrid car was manufactured all the way back in 1916. After sometime, they started to disappear with the emergence of cheap oil. The trend for hybrid car has come back recently when people have started to realize the damage to the environment as a result of gasoline operated cars and the other factor contributing to popularity of hybrid cars is the hike of gasoline prices. People have started looking for alternatives with the rising trend of green marketing.

Hybrid cars are supposed to give high fuel efficiency than conventional cars. On an average, they give 33-60 mpg in city, and 27-68 mpg on highway. The actual figures vary because no two hybrid cars are alike and no two drivers drive the same way. Hybrid cars are preferably used for city driving, because they are based on the stop-and-go technology. The batteries are recharged every time brakes are applied, which happens during city driving only.

Hybrid cars require regular service and maintenance as conventional cars do. The batteries of a hybrid car are very expensive but the pack comes in the form of 36 modules. You do not have to replace all batteries if any one of them stops working; only replace the one that is not working. This way, repair of a hybrid car is not very expensive.

There are certain myths associated with hybrid cars which are basically incorrect. The first concern is about hybrid cars safety. People think that because hybrid cars are made from lighter body parts, in case of an accident the passengers are at greater risk. Secondly, they think that in case of a crash, passengers can be exposed to electric shock from the high voltage electrical system. The Toyota Prius has scored a five star safety rating in NCAP Euro tests. The same is the case for the Lexus hybrid cars. Therefore this myth is baseless.

The hybrid vehicles use dual source of energy to operate which makes them highly environment friendly. They emit substantially less pollutants into the air in comparison to gasoline-operated cars. The hybrid cars are top rated for fuel economy making them top rated for green scores also. So if everybody makes mpg their top priority then the vehicle pollution can be greatly reduced.

The European hybrid car market is slowly accepting hybrid cars as a main stream vehicle. Toyota leads the hybrid car market followed by Honda. In the year 2006, a total of 39,880 hybrid cars were sold across Europe. There are some people who believe that hybrid cars are not as good as portrayed in the advertisements, but the growing market share of hybrid cars confirms the opposite.

Discover more about Lexus Hybrid Cars, visit the Lexus website for more information and to book a test drive.