Hybrid Cars Not Always More Fuel Efficient
Life in the Green Lane - Jamie Lincoln Kitman from the New York Times draws some interesting conclusions about hybrid cars.
There are good hybrids and bad ones. Fuel-efficient conventional cars are often better than hybrid S.U.V.’s  just look at how many miles per gallon the vehicle gets.
When comparing the hybrid Toyota Prius with a Corolla on freeway driving,
Indeed, the gasoline engine [of the hybrid] worked so hard that we calculated we might have used less fuel on our journey if we had been driving Toyota’s conventionally powered, similarly sized Corolla  which costs thousands less.
In my opinion, the near future will be a mixture of hybrid vehicles, as well as vehicles powered by alternative fuel like ethonol, diesel, and diesel hybrids.
Long-term, however, I see hydrogen fuel cells being the best solution. The only input to a future refueling station is water and electricity. The output is hydrogen. Stations like these are already being used in ReykjavÃÂk, Germany, serving fuel-cell powered busses built by DaimlerChrysler. The next step would be to increase our use of cleaner sources of electric energy such as wind, hydroelectric, nuclear, etc. In California, there is a pilot hydrogen refueling station that relies purely on solar energy and water from the local utility to produce hydrogen.