We will see other hybrid adaptations come to the fore, including the possibility of plug-in hybrids that allow driving a hybrid vehicle solely on electric power most of the time. This hybrid’s internal combustion or compression ignition engine would only be used for more extended travel. Of course, such a configuration would require a much larger and heavier battery pack than the hybrids currently in showrooms and they could require lengthy recharging times, potentially presenting some of the same cost, packaging and operating challenges as the battery electric vehicles test marketed by some automakers in the late 1990s.

Hybrid electric power may be viewed as complex and a less-than-intuitive powerplant evolution by some, but then, major innovations in motor vehicle technology always seem that way until they blend into the mainstream. (Hoseless carriage, anyone?) By all indications, that’s exactly the course that hybrid power now seems to be taking in the auto realm.

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