Flaw drains gas from hybrid vehicles

There’s a loophole in how most hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles work, and countless gallons of gasoline are draining out of them.

Running the front defroster increases their fuel consumption drastically, as I discovered while driving three of them during Detroit’s typically cold winter. Setting the air-conditioning on maximum cool has the same effect, so the problem is not limited to Northern regions.

None of the automakers admits knowing how much this increases the hybrids’ fuel consumption, but one estimate is that drivers use the defroster or max the air-conditioner 10 percent of the time behind the wheel each year.
Arizona Republic