As someone who drives a Chevy Bolt, an amazing vehicle that GM has killed off TWICE now:
You fucking sure about that bud?
this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
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Seriously. Makes the suspension less aggressive and you have a win right fucking there
Technology Connections video on hybrids opened my eyes to what they actually are.
I used to think they were a crappy 1/4-step toward EVs, that their main feature was regenerative braking, and that all their gas savings vanished in highway driving.
All of that is wrong.
What they are is a different tuning of internal combustion engine that gets much better gas mileage but has terrible acceleration. Hybrids augment that acceleration intelligently with an electric motor so it’s not so noticeable, removing the big complaint you’d otherwise have with one of those engines in your car. And the gas savings are actually most dramatic in highway driving.
I used to think hybrids must be more complex because they're gas + EV. And more complex usually means less reliable.
I just learned very recently that that's not the case — for Toyota, anyway. Their hybrids are actually generally considered more reliable than their traditional gas cars, these days.
They deleted the starter and alternator. And the transmission, an e-CVT (which is nothing like the shitty CVTs that many people are familiar with), is dead simple and more reliable than even a manual transmission.
Also, I find brake pedal very interesting, because it actually feels completely normal and UNinteresting.
My only experience with regenerative breaking before was when I drove someone's Tesla. Letting my foot off the "gas" pedal felt like braking, and the brake pedal was only needed for hard, emergency braking.
In Toyota hybrids, the gas and brake pedals feel absolutely normal and familiar, despite most of the braking actually being regenerative 🤯.
There's probably more cool engineering that I have yet to discover. I just bought my Toyota like 2 weeks ago 🙂
(Note: Many manufacturers make hybrids differently, and there are plenty of shitty ones. Also, plug-in hybrids are pretty different, and generally less reliable.)
calling it an e-CVT is almost certainly a marketing mistake, because of how bad CVTs are in automotive service.
Well they've been making e-CVTs since the '90s. It seems like the other CVTs entered the market and ruined things.
The thing you’re describing is a setting in our Bolt EV: in “one pedal driving” mode you just lift your foot off the gas and the car begins braking. You get maximum regenerative braking this way because the car is never allow to just lose everything to air resistance. Or you can turn this off and the brakes behave like any other car.
I only drive in OPD mode now. It’s so simple and easy to get used to. We still have a gas car too and I will switch back and forth without issue.
Oh I have no issues with OPD. I think it's pretty cool. I was just trying to explain why the Toyota's brakes surprised me. They feel just like friction brakes, despite the actual breaking being mostly done with regen.
It's probably nothing special to most people, but I think it's interesting
When I bought my car I looked into the lowest lifetime cost of ownership vehicles because I was sick of my previous car breaking all the time. Priuses won by a lot between longevity, low repair needs, and fuel efficiency. Unfortunately that means they had high resale value so I went with something I could comfortably buy cash, so I went with something else small and reliable.
These days I'm more inclined towards full electric, but if I needed gas I'd prioritize hybrids
Yep, I had similar criteria in mind: Reliability, low maintenance, and within budget (no loans/debt). Mine's not a Prius, but I've noticed that used Toyotas in general tend to be pricier than other comparable cars.
I was actually in the market for an EV, initially. I assumed EVs would be more reliable due to simpler powertrains, fewer moving parts, fluids, etc. Sadly, my assumption was wrong. The EV category ranked lower than traditional gas cars, in terms of reliability.
IIRC, the rankings are:
- Hybrid (not the plug-in kind)
- Gasoline-only
- EV
- Plug-in hybrid
(I might be able to dig up sources for this later, if it's still in my browser history.)
Of course, these are broad generalizations, and there are some exceptions at each level.
the fuck they aren't
you were, until trump's noise began affecting your hearing.
Not tone deaf. Just greedy and don't actually give a fuck about their customers. Which is why they tried to kill the Chevy bolt, got rid of car play in the EVs and possibly other vehicles, have prioritized large trucks and SUVs because they get better profit margins. And that is just off the top of my head. I'm surr I could come up with more.
Well, you don't exactly get huge govemrnent bail outs by being competent. All us car manufacturers have in one way or another been propped up by the government. And before I see anybody comment about Ford not getting a bail out, please remember what vehicles are at every police station, fish and game, and other assorted government entities. Us car manufacturers would not exist without the governments safety net to save them from their gross incompetence.
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WE'RE NOT TONE DEAF...
The U.S. doesn't need more hybrids, it needs electric cars that cut out oil dependency and a corresponding increase in renewable energy production.
Hybrids use 60% less fuel. But America also needs limits on sizes of vehicles.
Also a functioning public transport system, but that's a little harder to do than sell a few cars.
I'll argue for both. Electric cars for when cars are necessary (sometimes they are, especially outside the context of urban environs), electrified public transit for the other 80%.
"Sorry, best I can do is a 100% tariff on cheap, performant Chinese EVs" – Biden
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I bought and needed a hybrid. I had a 212 mile round trip to work when I bought my Volt. Today I have a quarter tank of gas I'm afraid will go stale. Winter is coming, though, and I'll need the engine for heat and because the mileage drops to about 20 — less if I get on the highway.
I'm still leery about range and heat issues, but at least my wife bought a Tahoe so we have distance trips covered. That frees me up to buy an EV next go round and I guess if the heat sucks it'll be a decent fair weather car.
Make sure your next EV comes with a heat pump, then heat should not be an issue. Although I don't know how common EVs with heat pumps are in the US. Here in northern Europe, most EVs are offered with heat pumps nowadays, but in other European markets with milder climates, I think they are still much more rare too.
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We're not tone deaf, but we also can't hold a tune and generally don't really care.™️
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"GM - Electric Vehicle Pioneers - We'd Rather Sell Highly Polluting Combustion Trucks but We're Not Tone Deaf"
M'eh ... I've seen better slogans.
and they cant hear through all that noise and pollution.
"We know what our customers want: huge, expensive, highly profitable hybrids that will line our pockets forever."
Theres a hybrid here in China, Geely Emgrand, that gets 104 mpg hwy and costs 13K USD.
With the US government deep in Detroit's pocket, we'll never have anything close, here.
i think it's more like the US populace is deeply brainwashed by Truck and SUV marketing. If we (collectively) wanted efficient vehicles and purchased based on that, that's what they'd make. But they make sure that's NOT what we want.
Yes and no? The reason for that marketing is that they can sell pickups and SUVs at way higher margins because they're seen as luxurious. Because they have higher margins, every non-pickup sold represents a pickup or SUV not sold to the car company and dealerships. This is dumb as shit, but its how business types think.
The SUV version with the same engine gets 50 mpg, but costs 60% more.
well yeah they are able to sell SUVs an higher margins because they have conviced us that's what we want. If we wanted smaller efficient cars they could sell those at higher margins instead. supply and demand, except they are artificially creating the demand.
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We need electric trains. That's what we need. Fuck cars.
they already are, its FAST rail trains we need.
High Speed Rail is all (as far as I know) electric. Much of Europe has electrified lines, about 60%, which carry 80% of traffic.
I guess you are from Trumpialand, so I feel your train pain.
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Too bad American car companies. I already learned my lesson buying your cheap junk. Never again.
Cheap junk?? American cars are very expensive junk.
Say what you want about GM, they didn't have to put the same V8 into pretty much everything, and now that they don't, how are teenagers going to get their hands on a 4L V8 so detuned it makes the same power as an engine 1/3 the size for like $4000 that was only ever driven by grandma?
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