There are only a few hybrid vehicles available in the UK. The hybrid vehicles available in the UK are the Toyota Prius, the Honda Insight, the Honda Civic Saloon and the Lexus RX 400 Hybrid. The Toyota Prius is the first mass produced of the hybrid vehicles. The Toyota Prius is a 4 door sedan with a battery and recharges while you are driving the car. It is the most fuel efficient car giving around 600 miles on a full tank and you can refuel like any other car.

The Honda Insight is a 2 passenger coupe. It was produced after the release of the Prius and became one of the fastest selling hybrid vehicles. It also has one the biggest gas mileage rivalling even the Prius. It would often go 70 miles per gallon on the highway and give around 61 miles per gallon in the city. The gas engine is a 1 litre with a 3 cylinder unit.

The Honda Insight’s engine shuts off when the car has stopped moving saving power and fuel. The onboard screen tells you the mileage in an instant. When using the manual transmission, the screen will tell you when to shift gears properly to better utilize the power. This comes standard on most hybrid vehicles. The Insight was rated as the lowest emission car of the hybrid vehicles.

The Honda Civic hybrid became the Honda Insight’s replacement. The Honda Civic has added a continuously variable transmission similar to the Insight thus turning it into one of the very fuel efficient hybrid vehicles. The new hybrid Civic has a 1.3 litre 4 cylinder single overhead cam engine with a newer high profile camshaft placed. The variable cylinder management allows the cylinders to shut down when the car is going on a constant cruise or decelerates speed. This would shift to the cars electric power and save the fuel.

The manual transmission for the hybrid Civic has been cancelled but their mileage has increased to 40 miles per gallon in the city and 45 miles per gallon on the highway. The Lexus RX 400 Hybrid was first introduced in the United States in mid 2005 as one of the popular hybrid vehicles. Immediately they have received over 9,000 pre orders at their launch debut. The Lexus has an all wheel drive system with a 3.3 litre V6 gasoline engine. It is aided by two electric motors, one for the front wheels and the other for the rear wheels.

The Lexus has its own system called the Lexus Hybrid Drive. It can give maximum output of 272 horse power. In normal driving conditions, only the gas engine and the front motor are used. The rear motor is only used under full acceleration or when the front suddenly loses traction.