Welcome back to our “Looking back at the past decade in motoring” feature. This is part five, and unlike last time, where we discussed everything from superminis to supercars, we’ll be focusing on one type of cars, one really horrible and yet really popular type: the hybrid.

Hybrid Craze

Ah, yes, hybrids. So popular, that even the police are using them, as you can see in the picture above. Although that does beg a question: how will you chase the baddies in a car so awful and slow? Some manufacturers are trying to change that slow bit though, with hybrid supercars. However, that concept is also bad. It ruins the point of a supercar in my view. It ruins the purity of it. Hybrids are quite an old concept, with the first one dating back to 1902, but they only went mass-market in 1997, with the launch of the Toyota Prius. This decade has caused some extreme growth in hybrid purchases, with over 1 million Priuses alone out there. Recently, Honda launched their new Insight to rival the car, and also the CR-Z hybrid sports car, although a hybrid couldn’t possibly make a good sports car in my mind. Besides these hybrid-only cars, there are plenty of hybrid variants of normal cars, including the Toyota Camry Hybrid, GMC Yukon Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid and Honda Civic Hybrid. This isn’t as good a thing as they make it sound however. In the long term, hybrids are more environmentally harmful, more expensive and much more boring. Have a look at this video for more detailed info on why not to go hybrid.

NYPD Toyota Prius Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons