Are You Ready For a Hybrid?

摘要

I'VE BEEN SHOPPING FOR SOMETHING to replace my aging Toyota,and I've come to this conclusion:My next car will be a hybrid.I've driven them all,starting in 1999 with Honda's quirky Insight and Toyota's original Prius,each more of a laboratory curiosity than a practical vehicle.In the past three months,with an eye on ever-loftier gasoline prices,I've driven all the mainstream models again,most for a week at a time and back to back with their conventionally powered counterparts.The landscape has really changed.Today's hybrids are no longer sops to environmentalism.They represent the biggest shift in automotive technology since the development of the gasoline engine.