I have had enough "hybrid hype"

I am so tired of the phrase "hybrid hype".

Today, I read the article, Amid Hybrid Hype, a Lonely Advocate of Fuel Cells, that finally pushed me over the limit.

"It matters not that, in the automobile industry, hybrids generally are regarded as an interim step toward cleaner, more fuel-efficient technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells."

"Gas-electric and diesel-electric hybrids are of the moment. The news media love them. Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest purveyor of hybrids, gets lots of greener-than-thou credit for promoting them. There's a buzz; and where there's buzz, there are politicians; and when you mix buzz and politics together, you get policies, which beget certain permutations in business."

Wow, not long ago, GM's Bob Lutz also called hybrids a poor business case, which he now admits was a mistake. Ironically, GM has also admitted that its fuel cell vehicles will inevitably be fuel cell HYBRID VEHICLES.

If hybrid technology is an integral piece of fuel cell vehicle technology how can you call hybrids an "interim step"? If GM and Toyota, the two biggest automobile companies, are going to develop fuel cell hybrids, then hybrid technology cannot be labeled "interim".

Of course, there is a buzz around hybrids. Why shouldn't there be?

9/11, Katrina, global warming, and high gasoline prices have made many people decide the time for action is now and hybrids provide that action today. It isn't just about what the Toyota Prius hybrid or the Ford Escape hybrid can achieve today, but what they could achieve tomorrow.

Plug-in hybrids can achieve 80 mpg and other experimental hybrids, with advanced lithium-ion batteries, have achieved more than 250 mpg. If we invest in today's hybrid vehicles, this can be the future for tomorrow's hybrid vehicles.

And, speaking of hype, where are the real world fuel cells vehicles? They aren't even a reality yet. Today, the average fuel cell vehicle costs $1,000,000.00 and there are still technology barriers, not to mention fueling obstacles. Yet, GM has lobbied the government since the Nixon administration not to raise national fuel economy regulations because fuel cells were just around the corner.

Let's face it, it isn't implausible to suggest that it might be 2 more decades before cost-effective fuel cell vehicles are available - if ever. If hybrids are hype, then fuel cell vehicles are pure fantasy.

So,we should wait two decades before taking foreign oil dependency or global warming seriously because fuel cells will save the world in two decades? Nothing like putting all your eggs in one basket.

Still, even if you want fuel cell vehicles to develop as quickly as possible, short term investing in hybrid vehicles might just be the best way to make that happen, unless of course GM and Toyota aren't going to be part of the fuel cell revolution.

Perhaps gasoline and diesel hybrids are a bridge to fuel cells, but to call them an "interim technology" simply doesn't make sense.

Inevitably, hybrid technology will also help power fuel cell vehicles, and it might just turn out that advancements made in gasoline and diesel hybrids help make fuel cell hybrids a reality much sooner than expected.