As New Energy Vehicles (NEV) start to make their way into the mainstream, it's understandable that they will come under the microscope. It's a natural instinct to be wary of new technologies that we don't completely understand – it's a natural defence mechanism that helps us protect our lives and in the case of cars, our wallets.
Related: The Cheapest Hybrid Cars in 2022
When it comes to hybrid vehicles, it's still a relatively new technology in the mass motoring sector. As such it has come under scrutiny from the public who are understandably wary of this greener way of travelling.
To help clear up some of the confusion, we gathered up some of the more common faults associated with hybrid cars. While this is a blanket approach to hybrid motoring and excludes some of the model-specific issues, it will help you make up your mind as to whether hybrid motoring may be a consideration for you in the future.
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Recalls
As with any rapidly developing technology, there are bound to be a few issues as the systems get tested under real-world conditions. Often, this is not a major fault and more often than not a simple tweak is required to get all the systems to function as designed. We see this regularly with our mobile phone software updates where an update has a slight bug and is soon fixed with what is known as a patch – a fix for the bug.
In some cases, this can be a little more serious but hybrid cars present no serious additional concern when it comes to this and many fossil fuel vehicles suffer the same fate with small issues creeping in under the radar.
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Battery Issues
We've all experienced this in some way, shape, or form in the past; a battery that has lived its life and no longer does as it's supposed to. Be it in a cell phone, car or laptop, we've all had one of those articles that has to permanently live on life support, plugged into a charger. This is because batteries have a set life span. Their inherent design means that they have a limited number of charges and discharges or lifecycles.
While this isn't an initial concern, older hybrid cars will suffer the same fate as the batteries cycle. You will be able to get several years of use out of the batteries in a modern hybrid car with some manufacturers guaranteeing over 8-years of service before you start to experience battery drain.
Hybrid cars also have to be used regularly so parking them and only using them on the weekends isn't good for them. The batteries will slowly drain as the car stands and this is not conducive to a healthy battery.
The final concern is the battery's performance in extreme climates. Too hot or too cold and the battery will not operate at its optimum capacity. While South Africa is regarded by some as being an extreme-heat climate, it only applies to certain areas and most of the habitable areas are moderate-heat climates.
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Catalytic Converters
Catalytic converters are part and parcel of a modern internal combustion engine. It's a filter that sits in line on the exhaust system, filtering out harmful toxins, gasses and pollutants that are expelled from the engine. As the legislature has progressed, the criteria for passing emissions tests have become tougher, resulting in more complex filtering of exhaust gasses.
Catalytic converters have an optimum operating temperature and require that this temperature be maintained as best possible. Usage outside of this range reduced the efficacy of the converter and reduce its lifespan. With hybrid cars shutting down the petrol engine, the catalytic converter is given a chance to cool and then heat up again as the petrol engine comes into effect.
This is another high-mileage, long-term concern with hybrid vehicles and should not be an immediate concern.
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Exhaust and emissions system
Similar to the above concern and directly related as well, the entire exhaust system forms part of the emissions control system. Being a hybrid car, emissions and low fuel consumption are its main concerns. To get the emissions as low as possible, multiple systems are employed to reduce the carbon footprint and overall fuel consumption. The oxygen sensor in a modern car is considerably more sensitive than that of years gone by and the tolerances in a hybrid application are particularly small.
An O2 sensor is much like a catalytic converter in that it has an optimum operating temperature. The same concern exists where erratic cycling of the heat in the exhaust, caused by the electric drive system, sees this sensor cool down and then be forced to heat up again as the internal combustion engine fires into life.
It's worth noting that a similar problem and reduced lifespan of the catalytic converter and O2 sensor in vehicles with auto stop/start technology, albeit not as pronounced or drastic.
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