There are a lot of issues surrounding hybrids. First and foremost should be the concern regarding their overall environmental footprint. I must admit that I have trouble believing that mining nickel in Sudbury, Ontario, shipping it to Europe for refining and then to Japan to be made into a battery, fitting that to a car and then potentially shipping it back to Sudbury for retail has less impact on old mother Earth than a plain old family sedan. Most people, however, just want to know if buying one will save them enough on fuel to offset the incremental cost of the hybrid bits.

That's a tough one. Those run of the mill family sedans are becoming remarkably efficient these days. Proof perhaps that the combustion engine has a few years to go before it's cast off to the big junkyard in the sky. Take the most popular family sedan in North America, the Toyota Camry. Outfitted with a smooth and powerful 169-hp four-banger the Camry sips but 6.1 L/100km on the highway and can average around 8 L/100km in combined driving. That's pretty darn good and most of its competitors are in the same league.

The Camry Hybrid? It's rated to consume but 5.7 L/100km both in the city and on the highway. If you drive 20,000 kilometres a year that works out to a savings of 400 litres of fuel. The price difference? In the case of the Camry around $5000 for similarly equipped vehicles. At today's fuel prices you'll need a decade of driving to recoup the difference. Up your mileage and naturally the gap narrows.

Unlike the Camry Hybrid the Prius and the Insight are harder to draw parallels with as they are hybrid-only models. All the other hybrids on the market have conventionally powered stable mates but car companies don't want you to be able to easily draw parallels there. In most cases hybrids are being positioned as ‘premium' offerings, the point being to load them up with options and features to mask the inherently high cost of the hybrid drivetrain. A bit counter to actually building a fuel efficient vehicle as ideally you'd want it to be as light as possible.

Lets try another example. One that on the face of it should make more sense. By licensing old Toyota technology Ford gets to offer the cheapest hybrid SUV on the market. Regardless of the Escape's attributes or lack thereof the hybrid version represents a sound value at $34,899, never mind what you can probably buy one for with all the employee pricing and whatnot. That, however, does represent a $9,300 premium over the most comparable 4-cylinder FWD Escape and you're still only saving around 2.5 L/100km. Make it two decades of driving to get that to net out.

Obviously there's no way to rationalize the incremental cost of these two hybrids relative to  their conventionally-powered brethren. Assuming you're doing a lot of highway driving that is. But if  you're doing most of your driving in an urban environment the gap narrows considerably as this is where the hybrid's ability to run on electric power alone yields the greatest benefit. For the sake of easy math compare the city economy numbers alone. In this scenario the Camry hybrid will cut 660 litres of fuel per year from your fuel bill and the Escape burns 860 litres less. You're still looking at several years at today's fuel prices but the gap narrows even further with tax rebates such as Ontario and BC's $2000  rebate though there are plenty of hurdles and loopholes if you're leasing and/or trading in a vehicle.

Naturally if you drive a lot more than 20,000 km a year the reduction in consumption is more pronounced as well but then the issue of long-term reliability and servicing costs arise. Though the batteries in hybrids are warrantied for 8 years (good thing as in some cases it will take that long for you to break even) their replacement cost is largely unknown. Though the price of batteries has come down you can expect to pay around $3500 to replace a hybrid's battery and that's a fair chunk of change. It's also a fair chunk of heavy metals that need to be recycled or properly disposed of and that takes more energy thereby increasing your environmental footprint. What the hybrid giveth it taketh away... In fact one study concluded that a Land Rover Discovery had a smaller overall carbon footprint than a Prius because of its longevity, durability and comparatively simple manufacturing. Though that's a contentious claim the same study also concluded that the most environmentally friendly car is the Yaris and that's a lot easier to believe. All that being said you can't dispute the benefit of reducing smog-forming emissions in urban centres and this is something hybrids excel at.

For my money though, I'd be looking at one of the new generation clean diesels. They offer remarkable fuel efficiency with drastically reduced emissions. They also perform better, are more durable, have predictable servicing requirements and have typically strong resale value. Crunching numbers may not reveal a hybrid to be a fiscally responsible choice and there are more than enough unanswered questions about the manufacturing and recycling of batteries to at least give pause concerning the behind-the-scenes environmental implications of the green movements poster vehicles.

For now the only hybrid I'd even consider would be the Prius. It offers the best economy, the most innovative features and technology, has the longest service record and is finally a comfortable right-sized car that is quiet and refined in its operation. It's also impossible to compare it to any other model as it's a stand alone hybrid. I'd willingly turn a blind eye to some of the unanswered questions for the immediate gratification of plunging the fuel consumption indicator down to 3.8L/100km but suffice it to say I'd be going in with my eyes open.

In every other case I'd say get the most fuel efficient gasoline or diesel model you can and rest assured you're likely doing the best thing for the environment and for your wallet.