Greenest: BEV or Hybrid?

Hybrid Data

Hybrid technology is an old, old solution first used for trains and dating back to 1925 as you can see here: https://www.borail.org/collection/cnj-no-1000/

In 1997 Toyota presented the Prius. A teenage family friend of mine had a 2-year old model back in 2010 and first got over 40mpg with the help of a slight modification I did on it.

That was countered in 2000 by the Honda Insight. An engineer friend of mine still owns one and regularly gets 75mpg with it -- which is what that car was originally advertised as being capable of.

Some years later, enter the 2013 Volkswagen XL-1, a 300mpg wonder designed similar to the Honda Insight but much sleeker. While unfortunately not a high-production vehicle, I believe only 200+ were made, it is yet a modern wonder.

Sadly, in 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid gets an unimpressive 38mpg and the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid achieves only 42mpg.

NOTE: For comparison, BEVs average up to 100 mpge (mpg equivalent).

More Data

In 2022, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Jessika Trancik stated that: ""The lifecycle emissions of an electric vehicle are typically more than 30% lower than those of a comparable gas-powered car – across most car models and locations," she told USA TODAY in an email."

According to a story in Visual Capitalist, the lifecycle of a BEV (battery electric vehicle) emits 34% lower carbon than an ICE and 18% lower than a hybrid.

Understanding that for ICEs & hybrids, CO2 emissions are mainly generated by fuel entering and exiting the engine. To explain, carbon emissions are calculated by factoring the kilometers or miles traveled, the fuel type used (diesel or petrol) and the fuel consumed per kilometer (or per mile) and the result is your emitted carbon. You can try this yourself here: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/car_calculators/new

A lower consumption vehicle will obviously emit lower CO2 levels.

Note: For the calculations below, we will assume 40mpg for a hybrid vehicle.

Now, Which is Greener?

The hybrid emits 24tCO2e due to fuel consumed (in the Visual Capitalist article mentioned above) while averaging 40mpg.

In the case of my friend's Insight which gets 75mpg, its carbon emissions are 60% less than the average hybrid. Based on the above Visual Capitalist article take the fuel consumption of 24tCO2e less 60% equals 14tCO2e and brings the lifecycle emissions down to 33tCO2e -- which is 6tCO2e (or 16%) lower than a BEV.

Let's take a look at Volkswagen's entry which gets 300mpg, its carbon emissions are 152% less than the average hybrid, so 24tCO2e less 152% equals -13tCO2e and brings the lifecycle emissions down to 10tCO2e -- which is 29tCO2e (or 118%) lower than a BEV.

Extra Data

Yes, BEVs can go 100% renewable energy, but that will still not bring BEVs down to the level of the Volkswagen due to the simple fact that it takes large amounts of carbon emissions to create that renewable energy.

Secondly, while there may be BEVs that are more efficient, but they are not PRODUCTION vehicles so are not factored into these calculations.

Bottom Line

Production hybrids have been (and today's models could be) much more efficient than BEVs with current technology.

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