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Hybrid cars integrate a gasoline engine with battery electric propulsion.  In non-hybrid vehicles breaking consist of inducing friction to slow down the vehicle converting the cars inertia into heat lost to the environment.  In hybrid technology the vehicles inertia is used to charge a battery during breaking.  The charge can then be used for propulsion increasing the cars miles per gallon. 

Currently (hybrid) cars are grid independent.  Batteries on board hybrids are only charged during breaking.  However, plug-in hybrids, with larger batteries that can be charged during breaking as well as by the grid (e.g. at night) will soon become available.  Plug-in hybrids are essentially battery electric vehicles with a small gasoline engine.  The small gasoline engine can be utilized to increase the range of the vehicles and allow for traditional rapid refueling of the car providing a solution to the range limitation of battery electric vehicle.  The drawback of plug-in hybrids is that the gasoline engine must be "carried" or moved during all electric operation thereby increasing the weight of the vehicle reducing the range of the all electric capability of plug-in hybrids. 

Hybrid vehicles are a stepping stone from gasoline engines to all electric vehicles increasing vehicle miles per gallon reducing dependence on gasoline.  Development in hybrid vehicles batteries will lead to more electric vehicles in time.

U.S. Hybrid Car Sales 2004-2007, by Green Car Congress Toyota
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gcc_hybrid_sales_feb07.png