What is a hybrid vehicle?

A hybrid vehicle is vehicle that utilises 2 or more power source to power and move the vehicle. There are many types of hybrids in the market.

There is a fair bit of misconception and misunderstanding surrounding the use and understanding of hybrid cars in Kenya.  Here are some misconceptions with hybrid vehicles that we hope to debunk:

1. Maintaining a hybrid vehicle is more costly than a petrol vehicle.

This is not the case, servicing and maintenance of your hybrid vehicle should be similar in cost and prices should not vary much. You can check out car servicing packages for hybrids. Cost of servicing a hybrid and a petrol vehicle is the same.

2. Hybrid vehicles are troublesome as I need to charge them often.

No, you do not need to charge your Vezel Hybrid purposefully. The sophistication in Honda’s engineering technology allow the batteries to be charged on its own. Referring to point 1 above, the hybrid vehicles that needs charging are the plug-in electric vehicles and these will have to be charged at the charging locations or at home. The Honda Vezel Hybrid is not a plug-in electric vehicle but rather a parallel hybrid.

For Honda hybrid enthusiasts, the Honda World website did a very good explanation on how their motor and batteries work together to give you the power to run your vehicle. 

3. The cost of replacing a hybrid battery cost more than ksh 600,000.

That is not true to a large extent. A battery pack in a Honda Vezel hybrid have many modules that contribute to the power of the battery pack (lithium ion). More than often your hybrid car battery breaks down as some of the modules in the battery pack have started to malfunction. You will just need to replace these modules and your car will be running on the road again. There is no need to replace the full battery pack. A full battery pack roughly cost less than ksh 200,000, so you do the math if you are only replacing a few modules!