and 800 miles between refuel? Am I missing something? Who needs these hybrid cars?<ul><li><a href="http://www.channel4.com/4car/rt/audi/a4/2642/8">http://www.channel4.com/4car/rt/audi/a4/2642/8</a</li></ul>

can get 69.5 US MPG!

They never recoup the price difference and they buy the damn car in the name of being "green" but don't even think for a second about what's going to happen to the tons and tons of lead acid batteries. Stupid people falling for more stupid and inane Japanese marketing tricks.

As are lead acid batteries.

For folks who are ostensibly technologically interested and savvy about motor vehicles the enthusiast crowd in general has a lot of deeply held beliefs about hybrid power train vehicles that are based on old wives tales and superstitions. That in itself is an interesting phenomenon.

Outside of that... the question of a better choice resolves to the familiar "It Depends" answer. For city driving I doubt even the cleanest diesel can approach the low emissions of a hybrid type vehicle. For highway mileage the ultra efficient diesels will offer better mileage, but I wager the emissions from a hybrid will still be less.

Toyota et. al. screwed up when they were marketing hybrids as high mileage economy plays because simple math says they're not. They are superbly clean though - granted people don't pay for clean in teh same way they pay for fuel but the platform is not without its considerable advantages.

but the cobalt cathodes are not good for the planet. At the same time, you can get li-poly batteries that do away with the cobalt, but at the same time reduce power...