Just curious, do Kia sell diesel engined cars in USA? The latest Rio diesel returns combined 73.5 miles per us gallon. (88.3 mpg UK)
Probably is sluggish to drive with only 74 bhp but none the less it is a pretty impressive figure for a non hybrid.
Top 10 most economical cars - MSN Cars UK

 

Nope, no diesel Kias for the US.

 

That's the other reason why I find Hybrid cars to be, to some extent or another, hilarious.

Here in the US, we have virtually no diesel passenger cars whatsoever. And yet in Europe, very inexpensive diesel cars generally perform much better (fuel consumption) than US-market petrol fueled parallel Hybrids costing twice as much.

Now, if we are talking about SERIES hybrids which have a large battery and the ability to operate in pure-EV mode (Chevy Volt, Fisker Karma, Ford C-Max / Fusion Energi, etc) than that's a completely different story. It's easy to justify savings in both fossil fuel consumed and pollutants emitted for a vehicle which is taking a substantial percentage of its energy off of the electrical grid, especially in those regions which have moved away from fossil-fuel input (or at least, away from coil and oil input) into the generating process.

 

I am also curious why hybrid and battery cars are so hyped. They seem to offer little benefit.
If I read the following article correctly then the epa rating is contrived and bears little relevance to the actual mpg figures.
Is the EPA Overstating the Mileage of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles? | The Energy Collective
It seems that a more reasonable rating would be g/km co2 based on the the energy used to produce and fuel cars for a specified mileage interval.