The New York Auto Show's hybrid car showcase is about one thing, according to the DetroitNews, horsepower. Since 2000 the average horsepower for a hybrid car was 73 hp, today it stands at 176.4 hp.

On the high end, the Honda Accord hybrid achieves 255 hp, while the Lexus RX400h hybrid achieves 270 hp. Horsepower, analysts say, is the way to the American heart.

Yet, hybrid car production costs about 20 percent more than a conventional auto and requires, roughly, 6 years of gasoline purchases to break even. For this reason many research firms, including JD Power, see hybrids topping out at 500,000 cars per year by the year 2011. Additionally, clean gasoline and diesel engines are seen as hybrid competitors.

Just yesterday, while announcing that Toyota hopes to sell 62,000 hybrid SUVs (Toyota Highlander hybrid and Lexus RX400h) this year, Toyota President Fujio Cho announced that Toyota intends to sell 1 million hybrids per year in the very near future.

The last time Mr. Cho made a bold prediction about the sale's numbers of hybrid cars, competitors laughed and ridiculed Mr. Cho. Those same competitors are not laughing any more.

Moreover, new gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, or even fuel cell technology could be utilized by a hybrid vehicle much more efficiently than any of these power sources alone. Additionally, hybrid technology will still evolve.

Batteries are the key to hybrid technology, and they are big and bulky right now. If those batteries become more efficient, such as laptop batteries have done, conventional vehicles will simply not be able to compete.