Rashomon
Member
Hybrids are a dead end. Just a delaying tactic that allows for something that can be 'sold' to those who aren't willing to do the math in the short term. Well within a decade, the best that can be accomplished with a hybrid will be surpassed by electric drive. Fact of the matter is that no one enjoys filling up with gasoline or diesel. It has nothing to do with range. It is all about visiting the gas station as few times as possible. And the promise of fully electric drive is lowering that count to a 'never again' total.
Hey, I'm going to be at the sustainable aviation conference in a few weeks, visiting friends who are making interesting things happen, things that will really change the world. Hybrids are what you do when you need more energy density than is going to be available in the foreseeable future. Are they a dead end? Of course. Someday they may not make sense, but this is not that day, and it's not real likely to come for the more difficult applications in the next 10 or 15 years. There are a lot of dead start-up companies out there that didn't reflect long and hard on the correspondence between actual engineering possibilities and real world needs and desires. Tesla has been laser-focused on that, and that's why they have had an impact.