blue20ae

Hybrid may or may not save you money, but all of them will reduce GHG emission with the comparable model.  There are a lot of assumptions in the calculation, such as the tax credit, the gas price stay the same (rather than going up within the five years), the mileage etc.

The BCAA's news release was meant to bring out the awareness that the elimination of tax credit will reduce the hybrid cars' affordability.

blue20ae

Hybrid is by no mean perfect, but it is a step towards the right direction.  Plug-in hybrid and electric are is the next steps.

Whether hybrid car makes sense or not, will depend on how much you drive and how you drive.  If you are a weekend drive or mainly drive on the highway, then hybrid may make a bigger carbon footprint than buying a SUV.  On the other end, Vancouver Taxis converting to hybrid make perfect sense and can take full advantage of the technology.

As for the batteries, for sure it will last more than five year.  I think the old Prius has 8 year warranty on batteries and the new model has 10 year.