According to Edmunds.com, hybrid sales were up 381 percent through the first half of 2012. There was even a record set in March when more than 48,000 hybrids were sold.
Last month, Honda sold its one-millionth hybrid while Toyota Prius was ranked the number-one hybrid by Fox Business and 24/7 Wall Street. The Chevy Volt also came in at number four, but the model is sometimes referred to as an electric vehicle, even though it is like a hybrid in that it contains a gas-powered engine that kicks on when the electricity is depleted.
Marita Noon of Energy Makes America Great, comments about the vehicles, "I personally think the hybrids make a lot of sense, if your real concern is gas-mileage. They can be a great car, if that's what you want, but they are more expensive and they aren't really friendlier to the environment."
Noon points to research claiming the Hummer is greener than a Prius. The How Stuff Works website dismisses that research, but does point to a U.S. Department of Energy study that shows hybrid cars do, in fact, require more energy to produce than conventional cars, emitting more greenhouse gases and burning more fossil fuels during the manufacturing process.
Still, How Stuff Works believes that the long-term benefit of driving a cleaner running automobile outweighs the negative impacts of hybrid vehicle production.
Regardless, H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. of the National Center for Policy Analysis, says hybrids are still not among the top-selling models in America.
"The Ford F-150 still outsells the hybrids," says Burnett. "Look, I've got no problem with hybrid technologies. I've got no problem with electric technologies. If that's what the marketplace wants, people will provide them. But if the marketplace wants it, then you don't need the government supporting them."
The federal government has been offering tax breaks for hybrid buyers, with some states also offering incentives. The same goes for purchasers of electric vehicles.