A decade after Toyota and Honda started selling petrol-electric hybrids, European manufacturers keep insisting you're better off with a conventional diesel engine. True, open roads don't show hybrids in their best light, but in urban running you can't beat them. So why not do a diesel hybrid? Mostly because of cost. Diesel engines are more expensive than petrol units in the Japanese hybrids and when you add the hybrid parts – electric motor, electronics and battery – it's a big burden. (source: telegraph.co.uk)
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