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Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

Are you considering converting your current hybrid into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle but you're wondering what the benefits are?

After all, being environmentally friendly is nice, but you should get some more benefits than just saving the planet, right?

Fortunately, there are a lot of benefits that will help you actually save money, not just the planet.

1) Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can get 100 mpg.

That's right, if you're going to use your PHEV for trips like your daily commute and you'll be driving it less than 50 miles per day, you can get your gas mileage up over 100mpg. For long road trips, it will be less, but since most people take short trips on a day to day basis, you'll be consuming very little gasoline. Some days your gas engine may not even need to turn on at all - which means no gas consumption at all.

2) PHEVs Are Cleaner Than Gasoline Powered Cars

One thing skeptics like to say about plug-ins is that they're simply transferring the pollution from cars to power plants. While it's true that PHEVs are transferring the pollution, it's not an equal tradeoff. Studies show that using electric power in a vehicle results in 67% less greenhouse gases than using gasoline in a car - even when considering that half the power in this country comes from coal. That's because large powerplants are far more efficient and are far cleaner than a conventional internal combustion engine.

3) Get cleaner as they get older.

Only PHEVs and 100% electric vehicles actually get cleaner as they get older due to the fact that the electrical grid gets cleaner every decade. A typical gasoline powered car gets less efficient as time goes on and becomes dirtier as it gets older.

4) Cheaper To Run And Maintain

While PHEVs and electric vehicles (EVs) cost more money upfront, they are actually cheaper to run and maintain than a regular non hybrid car. For example, if gas is $3/gallon, the very best non hybrid cars will cost 8 cents per mile for gas and gas guzzlers will cost 20 cents or more per mile. A PHEV, on the other hand, will cost only 2-4 cents/mile during short trips. Or if you'd like another way to look at it, when running on the electric engine, you're getting the equivalent of 75 cent/gallon gas.

5) PHEVs Reduce Dependency On Foreign Oil

Since the electric grid only depends on oil for 3% of its power, there's very little dependence on foreign oil when it comes to generating electricity (about half comes from coal). It's been estimated that if everyone drove PHEVs, we'd need 55% less oil and we could eliminate foreign oil completely.

About the Author

Gary Ruplinger is the owner of FuelSavingZone.com - Be sure to get his free report with a list of 61 gas savers. Also check out the best gas card on the market and save 5% on all gas purchases.