Hybrid Car Sales Statistics

From LoveToKnow GreenLiving

According to Green Energy Efficient Homes, hybrid car sales statistics have been affected just as much as the sales of standard gasoline and diesel vehicles on the road. In December of 2008, hybrid car sales dropped a whopping 43 percent but does that really represent true hybrid car sales statistics?

How Do Hybrid Cars Work?

Hybrid Cars and Disposable Income

With the economy starting to rise again, at year-end 2008, many households were still affected in the pocketbook by the recession. Even with more hybrid car options from both domestic and foreign automakers along with reduced prices, disposable income has played a role in hybrid car sales.

Instead of investing money into new hybrid vehicles, more and more people are using their disposable income for household bills and other needed items. The green folk are carpooling, riding their bikes, walking or using public transportation to get to work.

Greenest Wheels says from January 2004 to April 2009, over 1.25 million hybrid cars and SUVs have been sold in the US alone giving hope to environmentalists everywhere that we need to utilize the right kinds of energy sources to attack issues like global warming.

Hybrid Car Sales Statistics

One may think that 1.25 million hybrids on US highways is a good thing, but that 1.25 million only represents at 2.3 percent of the total vehicles on our roads. By December of 2008, and at the height of the recession, hybrids only represented 1.84 percent of vehicles on the roads.

Hybrid sales were increasing by February of 2009 with the growing popularity of the Honda Insight, Ford Fusion, and Toyota Prius, all offered at affordable prices utilizing both gas and electric engines that can travel good distances.

The larger size hybrids such as the Ford Escape, the Dodge Durango, and the Cadillac Escalade did not fare so well in early 2009 due to hefty price tags being purchased by households with higher incomes.

The government has demanded a force of over 1,000,000 hybrid cars on the road by year 2015, but are automakers ready to take on that challenge?

Foreign and Domestic Hybrid Cars

Hybrid vehicles are manufactured by both foreign and domestic automakers and while all may seem high in green technology, the price of these hybrid vehicles is from affordable to out of reach for some folks.

Hybrid car sales statistics show that consumers are more interested in foreign hybrids. Why? They are cheaper yet offer good quality. US automakers, on the other hand, other than the Ford Fusion and the soon to be released Chevrolet Volt, have kept prices higher without offering any more green technology than their foreign counterparts.

Car resource websites like Edmunds complain that many of the hybrids, both foreign and domestic will take years to own before the consumer breaks even. Notably, however, Edmunds only compared high-priced hybrids like the Cadillac Escalade and the Chrysler Aspen; both with price tags over $50,000. A Toyota Prius or Ford Fusion only takes four years for owners to recoup their investment.

Future of Hybrid Cars

If hybrid cars are to succeed and be affordable, the mentality of the car consumer that, “I need everything in my car, including a refrigerator,” must change. Bigger doesn’t always mean better especially when it comes to hybrid cars.

US automakers struggle to keep up with foreign hybrid automakers due to union disputes, the high cost of labor and hybrid parts in the US and their unwillingness to produce affordable yet efficient hybrid cars.

Hybrid car sales statistics in the next few years will rise in the US, but the real question is, will they benefit the US economy or a foreign economy. Some energy experts are naysayers when it comes to lithium-powered batteries and wonder if using up too much of our lithium power will backfire. Others are concerned that South America, where lithium is abundant, will become the new Middle East.

Whatever the arguments of the experts, if we are to cut down on harmful emission released into the air we breathe and protect our ozone, the hybrid vehicle will continue to entice current and new environmentalists as we all become more educated on energies, and how we can cut our energy dependence. It's a good bet that hybrid car sales statistics will rise well into the future.

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