Here’s how you can buy a hybrid car for cheap

Snapshot – Hybrid cars offer the economy of diesel and tail pipe emissions lower than even petrol powered cars. In a nutshell, hybrid cars are a combination of frugality and environment friendliness, factors that have seen this segment of cars grow at a hot pace. India’s tryst with hybrid cars began with the Honda Civic Hybrid and has expanded over the years to include the Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid. Low volumes and high import content means that hybrid cars are too expensive for the average car buyer. Don’t fret though as a fair number of hybrid cars end up in the used car market. CarToq picks out a couple of interesting deals from the used hybrid car world in India.

Honda Civic Hybrid 

The Honda Civic Hybrid was the very first hybrid car to be launched in India at a princely amount of 21 lakh rupees, when the Japanese automaker launched this car in India during 2008. The last few models of the car were sold at chunky 8 lakh rupee discounts. Here’s a bit of trivia for you. Honda was largely responsible for the Indian government’s homologation standards for hybrid cars sold in India.

Coming back to the Civic Hybrid, the car features a 1.3 liter petrol engine that outputs 95 Bhp-122 Nm. The petrol engine drives the front wheels of the Civic Hybrid by means of a CVT gearbox while the rear wheels are driven by hub mounted electric motors. The hub mounted electric motors come into operation at low city speed and also help during quick acceleration. The petrol motor takes over at highway speeds.

Honda claims that the Civic Hybrid is about 47 % more fuel efficient than the petrol engined model with an ARAI certified mileage figure of 21.4 Kmpl. Real world mileage figures for the Civic Hybrid are much lesser, and are only about 20 % better than those of the petrol powered Civic. Used examples of the Honda Civic Hybrid that have run about 50,000 kilometers can be bought for about 6-7 lakh rupees in Delhi. While shopping for a used Civic Hybrid, ensure that you pick up one that comes with Honda’s 12 year warranty for the electric motor’ battery pack.

Toyota Prius Hybrid

Like the Civic Hybrid, the Toyota Prius is imported into India as a completely built unit. While current prices of the second generation Prius Hybrid range between 36-38 lakh rupees, used examples of the car’s first generation version are priced at less than half the price of the new car. The Prius Hybrid is available at a price of about 15-16 lakh rupees for a 4 year old example with under 50,000 clicks on the odo.

The Prius Hybrid is powered by a 1.8 liter petrol engine (99 Bhp-142 Nm) that is supplemented by an electric motor. Together, the petrol engine and electric motor give the Prius Hybrid a power output of about 136 Bhp. The Prius Hybrid can operate in hybrid, electric-only and petrol-only modes, depending on the situation. Toyota Synergy CVT automatic-based transmission handles torque transmission to the wheels of the Prius Hybrid.  Claimed fuel efficiency for the Prius Hybrid is an ARAI certified 25 Kmpl.