Hybrid auto sales

[melm00se]

I know that my comments and this thread will be considered anathema to many here but it's a point that bears some examination.

There are a lot of calls here at DU (and other sites) for more hybrids and plug in cars. The sales data though appears to indicate that the demand for the hybrids (and by extension plug ins) is more a paper demand than real.

Several months ago, the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-fi-hybrid17-2009mar17,0,1930594.story) published some data that appeared to indicate that without high gas prices, the demand for hybrids was far less than that for traditional vehicles.

While the average days needed to sell a vehicle did increase for all types, the time to sell a hybrid Camry jumped 3800%
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-031709-fi-1hybrids-g,0,5380749.graphic

This is compared to a 200% increase in the average days needed to sell a "traditional" Camry.

makes you wonder if the demand for hybrid cars is an environmental decision or an economic one?

[Badgerman]

1. Hybrids remain to expensive, and ...

...economical enough in gas consumption to offset their difference in cost from lower priced standard cars. Why you calculate out the savings in gas for a Prius over a 200,000mi life and lay it against say the Corolla and it miosses saving the difference in their initial prices. Green is not affordable to the working classes who cannot afford the luxory of their convictions in this area. Cold fact! Until alternative cars are comparable in price with standard models the majority of buyers will remain on the standard cart.

[Sal Minella]

3. What we can't afford is the "luxory" of computing everything in dollars and cents.

Cold fact.

[pnutbutr]

5. Bang! You hit the nail on the head

People cannot afford them, especially now when the banks are being so stingy with providing credit.

[Stevenmarc]

7. Not that expensive, Toyota is offering a pretty good lease deal

$179 a month, that certainly puts it in Corolla territory.

[Sal Minella]

2. Both. Some of us are not eager to be caught in the stranglehold of Big Oil

next time they decide $5 gas is a good idea.

All they have to do is wait until people like you have pooh-poohed hybrids and plug-ins for awhile.

[Orsino]

4. That's beside what I see as the key point.

We need hybrids/plug-ins/electric vehicles whether or not consumer demand acknowledges this. As the oil runs out, we need to transition away from single commuters driving internal combustion engines.

Carpooling, combining trips, and more alternative vehicles can get us where we need to be. Hiding objections behind low demand is twentieth-century thinking that we can't afford.

[cherish44]

6. If I could afford a hybrid I'd buy one in a second

but alas I can't

[customerserviceguy]

8. $2 a gallon gas is an aberration

When production geared up like crazy last summer to take advantage of $4 a gallon prices, then demand fell way off as the recession hit hard and quick, it took awhile to get through all the slack that was created. I see gasoline settling at the $2.50 a gallon level (by the way, these are NJ prices, which are among the lowest in the nation, if you live in CA, add buck to whatever I've said here) and once we get economic recovery, it should sail back up to the $3.50 a gallon level.

Buying a hybrid now while incentives are high, and interest rates are relatively low, will look like a very smart decision in a year or two.

[NYC_SKP]

9. For most short-sighted Americans, it was/is an economic decision.

I never wondered.

But there's more to it than what buyers want, there's also miscalculation by makers of what demand will be.

If hybrid Camrys took so long to sell, it was also because too many were produced compared to what demand turned out to be.

Additionally, the higher cost for a hybrid in a recession guaranteed that fewer would be sold despite the best intentions of buyers.

In May 2007, the selection of Priuses was so slim that I had to fly a few hundred miles to buy mine, and that was before prices rose.

As soon as gas prices start climbing again, demand will rise.