Are there more and costlier maintenance required for the hybrids as there are for regular gas cars.

As long as they are new, the hybrids will work just fine- as they get older, who will want to repair these things? the cost to the owner is prohibitive (ask the price of a battery pack) and no mechanics want to work on these things- the batteries are an environmental nightmare, to make and to dispose of- WHAT?! all to save a few gallons of gas (they still burn it) and to feel green? I don't get it- electric vehicles are not the wave of the future, hydrogen cars and mass transit are more ecological- when will we ever learn? we can not have our cake and eat it too-

With Prius you need to rotate tires every 5K and change oil every 10k. You need to use full synthetic so the oil change will cost more, but other repairs will be the same. Battery is on warranty for 150k so it will be a while before that is an issue.

I've had my 2002 Prius since 2003 and have 160k mi on it with no battery problems. It's like any other car. If you take care of it it will last 200k-300k mi.