Motorists looking to have an impact on climate change were told buying a hybrid provides "no real environmental benefits for British drivers".
A recent study by Clean Green Cars showed that new hybrid vehicles, like the Toyota Prius, showed no significant improvement over standard diesel cars in terms of fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions.
The Toyota Prius, the world's first mass production hybrid, managed one more mile to the gallon than the Jeep Patriot and the hybrid Lexus GS 450h was out performed by BMW's 535d sport saloon.
Jay Nagley, publisher of Clean Green Cars, said: "People may be surprised to learn that hybrids are no better in the real world than diesels, but our tests confirmed what we had long suspected.
"Hybrid technology offers the prospect of real benefits, but only with the next generation of plug-in hybrids which are expected from 2010."
Katsuaki Watanabe, chief executive officer of Toyota, told BusinessWeek last year that the next generation of hybrids using lithium-battery technology would be available in 2008-09.
However, he did not reveal how much performance would improve compared with Toyota's current hybrid offering.
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