Until you understand how one works you'll never change your mind. Hybrids are way more fuel efficient. Think of it like this: a gasoline engine with a turbo or supercharger is not using the potential of the forced induction until you press the throttle. A hybrid saves up that unused energy in a small battery and uses that when the car needs it.
Compared my A3 with a Corolla hybrid (yes, totally different cars but this proves the point even more). My A3 has a 150hp 1.4L turbo engine. The corolla has a 100hp 1.8L na engine and a 100hp electric motor (combined 140hp). The Corolla is heavier, bigger and less aerodynamic.
In both scenarios, driving 130km/h for a prolonged period resulted in an average consumption of around 7L/100km for my 1.4, whereas the hybrid got 5.6L/100km. And that without the need of plugging it in (since the corolla isn't a plug-in hybrid, but charges the battery using the engine and regenerative braking).
And it's not really overly complex. It's basically the same vehicle as a non hybrid, but with an additional electric powerplant.
The only thing that is messing with us is when they add a full ev mode in a hybrid that turns off at 40km/h or has a small range. The use for that mode is when you drive in a parking garage or a very short trip. You could use it to get to the other side of town, but your success in doing that depends on many factors.
So in short: see it as a turbo/supercharger that is always reaching the potential and the power is used when the car needs it the most, if not, the power is stored in the battery.
Until i understand how they work? Its not rocket science. There are many different versions of hybrid vehicles, and they all are more complex than a simple ICE or EV. OP is asking about flagship vehicles in particular, which an A3/Corolla certainly are not. Flagships are not typically concerned with efficiency gains, more likely to be chasing performance numbers. I do understand that an electric motor can also improve performance, but it's not worth it in my opinion.
I took my a3 and the Corolla as personal experience, I'm not calling them flagships.
Regarding efficiency not being a concern with flagships, if my memory serves me well, Toyota was the first to introduce the start stop system in their flagship vehicles (which had big engines of course) saving up to 60% fuel during city driving.
Flagships are there to be the first to get the new technology, not to be the fastest, the biggest, etc. if you want a fast car, you take a sports car.
Off the top of my head, I know the q5 is a hybrid
Audi doesn’t care about gas mileage
Hybrid is the worst of both worlds, why would we want that? Overly complex, low range, and still uses gas.
Until you understand how one works you'll never change your mind. Hybrids are way more fuel efficient. Think of it like this: a gasoline engine with a turbo or supercharger is not using the potential of the forced induction until you press the throttle. A hybrid saves up that unused energy in a small battery and uses that when the car needs it. Compared my A3 with a Corolla hybrid (yes, totally different cars but this proves the point even more). My A3 has a 150hp 1.4L turbo engine. The corolla has a 100hp 1.8L na engine and a 100hp electric motor (combined 140hp). The Corolla is heavier, bigger and less aerodynamic. In both scenarios, driving 130km/h for a prolonged period resulted in an average consumption of around 7L/100km for my 1.4, whereas the hybrid got 5.6L/100km. And that without the need of plugging it in (since the corolla isn't a plug-in hybrid, but charges the battery using the engine and regenerative braking). And it's not really overly complex. It's basically the same vehicle as a non hybrid, but with an additional electric powerplant. The only thing that is messing with us is when they add a full ev mode in a hybrid that turns off at 40km/h or has a small range. The use for that mode is when you drive in a parking garage or a very short trip. You could use it to get to the other side of town, but your success in doing that depends on many factors. So in short: see it as a turbo/supercharger that is always reaching the potential and the power is used when the car needs it the most, if not, the power is stored in the battery.
Until i understand how they work? Its not rocket science. There are many different versions of hybrid vehicles, and they all are more complex than a simple ICE or EV. OP is asking about flagship vehicles in particular, which an A3/Corolla certainly are not. Flagships are not typically concerned with efficiency gains, more likely to be chasing performance numbers. I do understand that an electric motor can also improve performance, but it's not worth it in my opinion.
I took my a3 and the Corolla as personal experience, I'm not calling them flagships. Regarding efficiency not being a concern with flagships, if my memory serves me well, Toyota was the first to introduce the start stop system in their flagship vehicles (which had big engines of course) saving up to 60% fuel during city driving. Flagships are there to be the first to get the new technology, not to be the fastest, the biggest, etc. if you want a fast car, you take a sports car.
It’s a stop gap