Yes, there is "hybrid hate" out there. I don't completely understand it. Mostly it seems to be located in cyberspace and in the print media. I can't say that I've directly encountered it personally.

Here are some possible reasons that have crossed my mind in thinking about the subject.

a) Misery loves company. It's probably pretty galling to some people who are getting 15 - 20mpg that there is a group of people out there who are getting 45 - 55mpg. A pot of crabs in boiling water will try to pull down any crabs with a grip on the pot rim.

b) People don't believe the mileage claims of hybrid owners. This makes them hostile to anyone who tries, in good faith, to explain hybrid technology. It is understandable that people don't understand the technology. There has been a lot of misinformation published about these cars. Many hybrid owners, in fact, don't understand the technology.

c) Hybrids are not about "power, acceleration, prestige and conspicuous consumption". This places these cars and their owners outside the popular culture; we're "outsiders". (It certainly doesn't help at all that we're outsiders who are also perceived as believing we're better than everybody else.)

Something that is has been frustrating to me is the resistance to learning about these cars from some people I've spoken to (online) who I know to be engineers (and very intelligent people). This is disturbing.