Hybrid cars are a great little fad. On the one hand, they stand up as a status symbol because they have a fairly high price tag. But on the other hand, they are also a status symbol because they represent the notion that their owners are living a more environmentally friendly life style than the average person is. The whole concept behind them is great, until you realize that they are a very small compromise, and that their costs are not going to be easy to recoup even if you happen to own one of those cars for a fairly long time.
After all, the notion that if 20 percent of the cars that people in this world drive were to become 50 percent more energy efficient it would make much of a difference is something of a farce. This is even more of the case when you keep in mind that more cars are going on the road every day. We are a species which loves to drive, and it is unbelievably unlikely that hybrid cars are ever going to become the only kind which are on the road. At the very least, there are going to be a lot of hold out people until they become very cheap and better looking.
Plus, speaking of the costs of a hybrid car, they are generally significantly higher than those of a regular level emission vehicle. In fact, someone actually did the math, and found that for a lot of people it would take upwards of six years of driving a hybrid, just to break even with the costs of driving a standard car. If that really is the case, most people will never break even.