The reality for many, currently 98% of US drivers, is that they just want to get in and drive, they don't want to have to think about ranges, or charge times with free solar - sunny days- . The 10 minutes they spend at the servo filling up every week is a habit now too, like going shopping, they don't consider it, I don't. The same with yearly or 6 monthly services. All hybrids need servicing too of course, the oil changed etc, so you're not gaining anything there with them. What you are doing is paying a few thousand more for a car in the expectation that it will save you a few thousand or more over the life of the battery. But what's a hybrid worth when it's battery is near stuffed?
Do the buyers realize that the electric motor augments them when pulling away from the lights, when overtaking? When climbing long hills? Take the battery away and you have a gutless 4-cyl Atkinson cycle engine that couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Definitely a car for the elderly. The vast majority of modern hybrid electric vehicles use Atkinson cycle engines to maximize fuel efficiency. And don't forget most recharge the battery off the ice engine too, which is very inefficient. Combustion power with all it's losses into to a mechanical generator and then to a chemical storage battery with associated losses. But they are very fuel efficient. as most small gutless engines are. My sister bought the Toyota corolla hybrid and she insisted that the battery recharged itself by regenerative braking. The salesman told her so. I went the Australian website and they said it there too! A bold faced lie. I had to pull up a UK Toyota website to get the truth, that the lion's share in fact comes from generating electricity when running on petrol. So a gutless engine pulling a car AND recharging the battery at the same time. Lovely. I'll stick with petrol.
The main difference with an EV would be that they would no longer need to go to the gas station. Assuming you have a garage, or some way to charge while parked at home, the charging can be done at night while you sleep 90% of the time, thereby taking 15 seconds of your time to plug in when you get home.
It's not like going to the gas station is some huge encumbrance, but it's not like charging an EV is either, that's the point. I'm not sure what the rant about hybrids is for, if you have a plug in hybrid and the battery is full, then you are likely running in electric mode with the engine off (perhaps not for highway driving). Not all hybrids run an Atkinson cycle, and some with variable valve timing can run Atkinson for efficiency and behave like a normal engine when power is required.
No need to discuss the power of a hybrid without its battery- have you considered how many HP a car without a gas tank has?
Most hybrids do charge their battery via regen when possible, but regen predominantly functions to save brake pad usage and allow the engine to run in it's peak efficiency band for longer. This is how regen has always worked and continues to work.
If you weren't aware, the point is that the hybrid has a strong electric motor to support the gas engine. You don't need a continuous high power output, and a big engine is inefficient.
For example, the Toyota prius prime has about 220 HP from the motor and the engine combined, and according to some random website, can do 0-60 in 6.3 seconds, with a "combined mpg" of 52 mpg. That's more power than plenty of standard cars have, and double the mpg of many cars with that much power otherwise. Gutless, I'm sure.
