This is how people spend most of their time in cars and why they were made....We could also add in emissions etc etc, but we won't go down that path.....However they haven't been as popular as expected
I would argue that not everybody deals with peak hour, stop go traffic, I don't.
If you do deal with peak hour traffic on a daily basis, a typical cheap Hybrid, lets say the Corolla SX sport hybrid is about $2k more than a "normal" SX sport.
For a little economical 125kw 200nm 2.0l that could be a years worth of fuel.
Also, the 1.8l hybrid only has 72kw 142nm, which become blatantly apparent when the car sees a hwy.
I agree that a little hybrid is a handy car for peak hour traffic jams, but it will fall on its face in clear traffic.
Don't believe me, go hire one for a weekend, we got "upgraded" from the basic corolla to a hybrid corolla a while ago, I have hired the normal corolla before, it was a nippy little econo-car, it did the Brisbane to Amberley run brilliantly, the hybrid was a slug.
Albeit my view is based on hiring the cars from Brisbane airport and driving them to Amberley.
Now, if only a full electric car was at a reasonable price and charging was logistically easy, now that "is" a perfect stop start vehicle.
I won't go into how un-enviromentaly friendly full electric cars currently are.