Daily Auto News Study: Ford Fusion Hybrid Pays for Itself Fastest
Daily Auto News
One of the most successful long-standing arguments against buying a hybrid is simple: it doesn’t pay for itself. The added cost of a hybrid powertrain, some analysts say, is so high that most buyers will never save enough in gasoline expenses to cover what they spent buying the exotic powertrain..
A new study says, however, that that may not be the case…especially when it comes to the well-reviewed Ford Fusion Hybrid. Autoblog reports, “Well, the San Francisco Chronicle has compiled a list of seven popular hybrids along with estimates of how long it would take for each car to pay for its higher cost compared to non-hybrid models in gasoline savings. The winner by a long shot is the Ford Fusion Hybrid at a mere 5.6 years.” According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, most Americans now keep their cars for about seven years, so the Fusion Hybrid could conceivably save money over the conventional Fusion for many buyers.
No other car came close. The Mercury Milan Hybrid, a close cousin to the Fusion Hybrid, would take 13 years to pay off, according to Kicking Tires. “The Toyota Camry Hybrid will take 15 years, and the Honda Civic Hybrid 17 years.” The Nissan Altima Hybrid was the worst performer in the study, taking 21 years to pay off.
The Toyota Prius and Honda Insight were included as well, but there is a wrinkle in calculations for those cars. They have no obvious conventional counterpart. The Chronicle chose to compare the Prius to the Toyota Yaris, and the Insight to the Honda Fit. It would take 16.5 years to recover the added cost of the Prius as compared to the Yaris, and 20 years for the Insight as compared to the Fit — but some question whether those comparisons are fair. Kicking Tires comments, “Anyone who’s been inside both a Prius and a Yaris knows the cost difference reflects far more than just the hybrid engine.”
The Chronicle itself concludes, “Although most hybrid cars can get you around on considerably less gas, at current gas prices, most of them just aren’t cheap enough to make this the sole consideration when deciding between a traditional or hybrid model.”
There are, however, good reasons to question the paper’s methodology. The Chronicle calculated the amount of money saved by driving a hybrid the same distance as one would drive its conventional counterpart — but past studies have shown that, once people buy a hybrid, they tend to drive more than they had in the past. Also, the Chronicle assumed “current gas prices” (they used a per-gallon price of $2.86 in their calculations). But gas prices fluctuate. Autoblog comments, “If gasoline taxes shoot up or peak oil really is right around the corner, the cost per mile of these vehicles could very quickly tip in their favor.”
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