[seabrookmx]

> that segment is small and rapidly becoming non-existent

Disagree. People vastly overestimate the complexity of hybrids.

The mechanical and electrical components in a Toyota-style planetary gear based hybrid are much simpler than a standard automatic transmission, and demonstrably more reliable than both a conventional automatic and belt-style CVT.

This is a long way of saying, the specific market segment hybrids are a good fit for is the set of all passenger car customers that an EV is _not_ a good fit for. Anyone buying a Corolla, Civic Rav4 or CR-V should be buying the hybrid, and sales seem to be trending that way.

[foobazgt]

[Hey I own one of those]. Nah, the majority of people buying those specific vehicles should be buying an EV instead. In fact, this article is targeted specifically to them.

Rather, the biggest need for hybrids are people who frequently tow long distance at highway speeds. The combined aero drag is ridiculous: about 25% of typical EV efficiency. You'd need to drag a humongous 300kwh battery around to get range comparable to a typical sedan while towing.

Instead, some of the new EREVs are more like a BEV + hybrid, in that they have a BEV-sized battery (e.g. 100+kwh) for all your non-towing driving, along with a generator to handle the long distance towing.