For years Europe has been a continent dominated by diesel-sipping automobiles. Free from U.S. and Japanese worries about the cleanliness of driving a diesel, European drivers have propelled diesel sales to all time highs. Today half of all new cars sold in Europe will be diesels, and there are good reasons: diesel is much cheaper than gasoline in Europe and diesels can be run for free by recycling used vegetable oil. This explosion of fuel efficient diesels would seem at first like a blessing for the European population, but it has left them desperately behind the hybrid technological revolution. But will this change when companies like VW, previously opposed to using hybrid technology, begin to make and market their own hybrids?

The answer is yes. Of the small amount of hybrids on the market right now, only one of them is U.S. made: the Ford Escape hybrid. The rest are produced by Japanese companies. Until now hybrid penetration in Europe from these companies has been extremely low, with almost no hybrids being marketed in Europe. One of the things stopping Japanese and U.S. manufacturers from marketing hybrids in Europe is the prominence and affordability of the diesel automobile, these characteristics can’t be matched with new and expensive hybrid technology. Also, the lack of European hybrids from makers like Volkswagen and Peugeot kept gas-electric and diesel-electric vehicles off the public’s radar.

Until recently, Honda and Toyota were the only manufacturers selling hybrid vehicles in Europe; they respectively sold the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius. These two vehicles, while not winning a large market share, have paved the way for future hybrid development in Europe. However, with the Honda Civic Hybrid adopting “full” hybrid technology in 2006 and the Toyota Prius already using it, these two cars are not seen as the future of gas-electric vehicles in Europe.

The current automobile trends in Europe suggest that buyers are not looking for full hybrids to replace their diesels, but rather “mild” hybrids like the current 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid. Rather than sometimes relying completely on the car’s electric motor, these mild hybrids use their electric motors as a constant complement to their internal combustion engines. European automakers are also embracing this mild hybrid trend, and are planning to respond to the rising hybrid demands with vehicles that offer 15-20% increases in fuel economy over their non-hybrid siblings.

Only a few years ago, many of the big names in European cars were opposed to the development of hybrid vehicles. BMW first rejected work on hybrid technology because it favored spending its Research and Development budget looking even father forward to hydrogen cell vehicles. VW took the same position, with the exception that it believed diesel would be the future of the company rather than hydrogen or hybrid technology. However, this has all recently changed. Less than a month ago BMW showed a hybrid concept car in Frankfurt, Germany that boasted: a 15% increase in fuel economy, 737 lb-ft of torque, and the use of super-capacitors in place of traditional hybrid battery packs. BMW will continue developing this concept car, hoping to greatly reduce the weight added by the hybrid technology, which will bring greater fuel economy and performance capabilities.

On the other hand, while Volkswagen unveiled its new hybrid Golf Eco.Power, it did not stray far from its claim that diesel was the future of the company. Unlike other hybrids, the Golf ECO.Power uses diesel-electric technology rather than gas-electric. This mild hybrid has a lot of promise in Europe as it offers the traditional VW Golf styling and the benefits of diesel fuel, all under the umbrella of hybrid efficiency. In this way Volkswagen has developed the first truly “European” hybrid. On a similar note, Mercedes will be complementing the addition of this efficient diesel-electric hybrid with its own performance and luxury diesel-electric hybrid. In Europe Mercedes is well known for decades of high-class, high-performance diesel cars, and it will soon be continuing this tradition with an S-Class sedan that nets over 35 miles per gallon while still being able to accelerate from 0-60 miles per hour in 7.6 seconds.

These steps alone will only begin to help Europe catch up with the United States and Japan in terms of hybridization, but there are also some extremely exciting things happening in Europe in terms of hybrid fuel technology. One such exciting development is that of a plug-in Toyota Prius. Recently a British company, Amberjac Projects Limited, released a system that adds more Lithium-ion batteries to the Toyota Prius. This allows the Prius to run on its electric motor longer and drastically decreases emissions while increasing fuel economy. These plug-in hybrids will operate in exactly the same way as the current Prius with one exception: to take advantage of the increased battery capacity you must charge that car overnight as if it was fully electric. This is a small inconvenience, however, since electricity is readily available during these off-peak hours and you, the driver, are repaid by 100+ MPG figures over trips shorter than 60 miles. These almost unheard of figures are made possible by new hybrid technology emerging from Europe, even though the continent was nearly devoid of hybrid vehicles just a few years ago.

Does all this mean that Europe is catching on to hybrid “fever,” which is currently taking hold of the United States? Yes and no. Europe is embracing hybrid technology in order to increase the fuel economy of its existing vehicles, though it has not yet shown as much interest in the “full” hybrid, which is another step down the road toward completely electrical vehicles. Even as Europe begins to catch up to the United States and Japan in terms of hybrid technology, it shows promising signs off one day leading the race with plug-in hybrids and diesel-electric hybrids.