Manufacturers can call their cars whatever they like, of course, but the prevailing nomenclature for hybrids is unhelpfully untransparent. Much of it is nonsense as well: 'MHEV' stands for 'mild hybrid electric vehicle' yet is often applied to a petrol or diesel car with a beefy starter motor.

 

The technology may very well be useful to reduce fuel consumption, but mild hybrids are electric vehicles in much the same way that a person wearing roller skates is a train.