Gasoline prices the best sales pitch for a hybrid electric car

Are hybrid electric cars worth the money? It depends on the price of gasoline, according to data shared by the consultancy Avicenne Energy at the 2018 International Battery Seminar.

Hybrid electric cars are essentially gasoline-powered cars with an electric battery. 

The battery allows hybrids to store energy from activities like braking, which would be otherwise lost. Hybrids can then use their batteries to do some of the driving, and thus offer better gas mileage than their internal-combustion-only cousins. For example, the gasoline version of a 2017 Toyota RAV4 gets 24 miles per gallon, whereas its hybrid version gets 32 miles per gallon.