Don't fall for the bunk being spewed by either the car-makers who do not yet build gas/electric hybrids and don't want to spend the $$$ to do so, and/or, the publications, supported in great part by those car-makers, that "the hybrid is dead".
They've been making this noise since hybrids first hit American streets (ignoring the fact they went on-sale in Japan a year or so before being available in the US and sales started hot and have remained so).
Since the vehicles first appeared on American buyers' radar, columns and blogs have railed against these machines with 'experts' offering all sorts of Pythagorean 'proofs' that the cars are not worth the extra amount. Well, the fact is, the hybrid versions of any car are not that much more than the traditional engine set-up, and with gas now at $3 nationwide and not coming back down anytime soon, their value is better than ever for any buyer.
The truths about hybrids are this, and they have not changed: Hybrid buyers want some percentage of their purchase to, 1) Make a statement, and, 2) Offer great fuel mileage and lower emissions, even if the mpg numbers are never as good as the EPA and manufacturer says on the Monroney sticker.
Hybrid vehicles have moved into the toughest, wildest, dirt-slinging-est part of the marketplace: The mid-size family sedan priced between $20,000 and a bit over $30,000. Best-selling vehicles in that class have been, for the better part of the decade, either the Toyota Camry or the Honda Accord.
The buyers in this class, where car sales total more than 1 million of the total 16-million car and light truck marketplace, are a different breed from those who buy the smaller hybrids (Civic, Prius) and the bigger ones either for-sale now or coming to the market soon (Lexus RX400h, Accord and Camry hybrids, Nissan Maxima and Altima, and the autobahn-sturmer Lexus LS 600hL intro'd at the NY Auto Show days ago).
Buyers in the mid-size class look at price first, then dependability, reliability and reputation, standard equipment and available options, mileage, safety and horsepower and, finally, overall value for the dollar.
These buyers are the bulls-eye of the marketplace, the REAL heartbeat of the auto industry. Many of them are (and people west of the Mississippi may have trouble believing this) domestic owners and may be considering their first imports (or not). Chevrolet's Malibu, Impala and Monte Carlo are some of the best-sellers in the mid-size category right behind the imports (though Toyota aiming at 500,000 Camry units total in 2006 is quite an amazing prediction; they're taking over the Subaru-Isuzu plant in Lafayette, Indiana to reach that total).
With the huge and generally more conservative audience now offered hybrids, sales will naturally be slow at first. Ask Toyota and Honda if buyers in this category like change of any sort. They'll tell you unequivocally that these buyers don't like change of any kind.
Carlos Ghosn, "savior" of Nissan and the man who runs both Nissan and Renault from Paris, France (as opposed to Paris, TX), and the man who is moving Nissan's USA corporate HQ from southern California to --- Nashville, TN, has being saying for over a year now that hybrids have a very limited, if any, future. Of course he's managed to garner even more headlines than usual with such unusual "tough talk" about a highly-touted new technology. Yet Nissan will introduce hybrid versions of both their Altima and Maxima models within the next year. Ghosn says the company will make them for sale "only in California", to meet that state's emissions requirements. We shall see.
Meanwhile, Bill Ford, the 42-year old chief of Ford Motor Company, has not made much good on his promise to make Ford the "greenest" car company of them all. Ford's hybrid-powered Escape SUV has sold in such short numbers that dealers are offering 0% financing and other money deals to get people into the trucks. Why? We say for the same reason hybrid sales appear to have allowed in the mid-size car category; mid-size SUVs are a huge marketplace, and a new technology takes longer to gain acceptance.
Accord hybrid sales will pick up as the mass of "Honda-only" buyers (and if you don't believe that segment exists, look at the people who bought that poor excuse for a pickup, the Ridgeline). These folks will buy anything with a Honda label slapped on it (remember the Isuzu SUVs Honda buyers bought in drives just because they were sold at Honda stores)?
Toyota buyers may not be as wildly loyal as those who line up at Honda dealers, but as Camry's hybrid finds its way into more driveways and garages, the word will go forth from those first buyers, those "early adapters", on whether the car is a winner or not. If it does get the nod from your neighbors who already own one or two Toyotas, then Camry hybrid sales will kick into a higher gear.
Prius and Civic hybrid sales are still strong; buyers still sign a waiting list when they want to buy one of these impressive little technological masterpieces (we have had our Prius for 4 years and over 30,000 miles --- Not ONE THING on the car has broken. NOT ONE THING. That is simply amazing, considering the amount of technology in the car. Can you say the same thing about your car or truck, no matter what you paid for it?).
The youth, the retired and the student and green types who could easily afford the Prius and Civic have made their statements; the giant hybrid SUVs and sedans coming to market will sell easily; There are plenty of "greens" in the marketplace to buy these vehicles at any price and satisfy their buyers' egos in a new way.
So what's YOUR take? The auto industry executives of all stripes who read these pages would like to read and respond to YOUR comments...so go ahead and post some!
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