Pollution is a serious problem in itself causing smog, breathing problems, cancer, illness, and many times death.
These hybrid engines are not a hypothetical futurist's view, but instead a marketable current automobile that is currently being sold by major automobile companies like Honda, Ford, General Motors, and many others are either on the market or will be within a year or two.
II. Personal Reasons for Selection of Hybrid Engines.
I first heard of hybrid engines when I was a sophomore in high school. My school showed a news channel, called Channel One, for fifteen minutes each day, which my friends and I usually just talked through and finished up homework that we hadn't done the night before. One day, I actually watched it and was fascinated by the story of hybrid engines that seemed so futuristic. Electric cars were neat, but when you learn much about them, you realize how limited they are in power and how long it takes to charge them, but hybrids were different. The news show said that they wouldn't actually be on the market for another three years. At that point they lost my attention, because I figured I wouldn't hear about them for another ten years. Hybrid Engines just seemed so far away, like something out of a science fiction book, the ideal car.
But recently, I noticed that car companies actually had plans to produce the gasoline electric cars commercially. I read a few things and my interest grew from an idealistic view of them, like a boy with his daydreams, to a realistic view of them and how they would really do more than just seem futuristic. They could really save me some money. I just imagined only having to pay half as much for gas as I do now. Even if gasoline stayed the same price, it is conceivable for me to get over twice as much gas mileage per gallon with these hybrid cars. .
But still it seemed like a novelty to me. That was until I read some more about the "un-renewable oil problem.