Hybrid cars are increasingly popular in the European Union as eco-conscious drivers turn away from their more polluting petrol and diesel counterparts, but environmentalists warn they’re not as green as they seem. Sales of the cars, which use both a conventional combustion engine and a small electric motor, allowing owners to drive a few kilometres without emitting CO2, could soon overtake those of petrol vehicles in the EU. In the third quarter of this year, 20.7 percent of cars sold in the bloc were new hybrid versions whose batteries are recharged by collecting wasted energy from elsewhere, like braking, and 9.1 percent were hybrid plug-ins that can be charged from an electric outlet. Close to 40 per cent were petrol-powered, 17.6 percent diesel and just 9.8 percent were fully electric. Cheaper than fully electric cars, they also provide some reassurance for those worried about their battery running out of power at a time when charging stations are still not widespread. Auto giants like Toyota, Stellantis, Renault and Hyundai-Kia are banking on hybrids, not least because they allow them to comply with EU norms on CO2 emissions at a lesser cost than fully electric cars. But are they truly less polluting, or more of a transition solution as the world edges towards ditching petrol and diesel altogether? Greenpeace and the pressure group transport and environment believe that hybrids actually slow down this transition. They want to accelerate the shift to fully electric and to other forms of transport, pointing out that hybrids aren’t that green. “Conventional ‘full’ hybrids in particular, which run for the majority of the time on fossil fuel energy, are barely any cleaner than traditional petrol and diesel engines,” Greenpeace said last year.