Hybrids: a necessity for an industry under pressure

If automakers could make the jump to full electrification tomorrow—and in doing so, skip the many flavours of hybrid vehicle—there is a good chance they would. For all the benefit they bring, hybrids create a number of complex and costly challenges for manufacturers. From an engineering perspective, building a vehicle with two separate powertrains is a woefully inefficient way to do things, putting further strain on packaging and further complicating the manufacturing and assembly process itself. All of this amounts to time and money for a mid-term solution which might otherwise be funnelled into EV development, and accelerating EV adoption.