[xyzelement]

I have a hybrid highlander and love it.

The reason they are efficient is something like this:

A cars engines efficiency/fuel economy is constrained by its max output. Ie when you have an engine capable of very rapid acceleration, that engine is going to be too big across all other scenarios - ie two cars of the same weight going the same speed , the one with the bigger engine will consume more fuel.

The hybrid lets you take advantage of this in two ways. First it allows you to have a smaller engine because the electric motors kick in when you need the acceleration. So it lets you get away with a smaller engine that is more than enough for your driving and that gives you efficiency.

Then it also uses the fact that even the smaller engine is still oversized for things like coasting or going steady so it uses the extra engine output to charge the battery at the right times. Regenerative breaking is another efficiency play

Curious what will happen to the battery over time but for the past few years the hybrid highlander is great.

[rascul]

> two cars of the same weight going the same speed , the one with the bigger engine will consume more fuel.

Generally. But that bigger engine might be producing more power at a lower RPM and there might be some cases where the difference isn't as noticable.