Toyota, which once had months-long waiting lists for its market-leading Prius hybrid car, is now offering low-interest financing to move the now readily available model off dealers’ lots.
Does that mean the bloom is off the hybrid rose? Or that car buyers began losing interest in fuel economy when gasoline prices retreated – briefly, at least – from the $3 a gallon level?
Far from it. Overall, the hybrid category now reflects more than 1.5 percent of all new vehicle registrations in the U.S. and is growing briskly, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive information and marketing company.
Nationwide, registrations for new hybrid vehicles rose to 254,545 in 2006 – a 28 percent increase from 2005. For the third year in a row, Toyota’s Prius was the hybrid sales leader with 43 percent of new registrations. Toyota sold 107,000 of the roomy but fuel-efficient cars in the U.S. last year. The waiting lists disappeared because Toyota boosted production capacity in hopes of selling 175,000 Prius cars in 2007.
California continues to lead the nation in hybrid vehicle registrations but they are popular in Colorado, too. Denver registered 4,954 hybrids last year, 1.9 percent of the local market, to rank 10th among U.S. cities in hybrid sales.
Hybrid cars are only part of a larger and rapidly changing picture that shows both manufacturers and buyers are more interested than ever in “green” cars.
Most hybrid vehicles offered today are powered by gasoline and equipped with batteries that are recharged during driving. There’s an electric motor to assist with power demand. General Motors grabbed the spotlight at the January North American International Auto Show in Detroit with its Chevrolet Volt concept car – a “plug-in” hybrid able to travel up to 40 miles on a single charge from house current. GM says about half of U.S. households travel fewer than 30 miles per day.
On longer runs, the Volt can be equipped to run on gasoline, E85 (a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) or biodiesel. GM is also working to convert its existing Saturn Vue hybrid to a “plug-in.”
While hybrids are the most dramatic fuel-saving technology, manufacturers are investing heavily in other alternatives. Nissan and other manufacturers tout their continuously variable transmissions as providing both better acceleration and better fuel economy.
Diesel engines, long popular in Europe but mostly limited to heavy trucks and equipment in the U.S., are expected to see significant U.S. sales growth now that new “clean diesel” fuels are widely available. DaimlerChrysler is aggressively developing its BLUETEC technology designed to reduce diesel vehicle emissions, especially nitrogen oxides – the only exhaust- gas constituents that are still higher in modern diesel engines than they are in their gasoline counterparts.
Some of the fuel-saving technologies are complementary. GM unveiled the Opel Astra Diesel Hybrid, a sedan concept vehicle the company claims would increase fuel economy by 25 percent over a comparable diesel car, to about 60 mph. DaimlerChrysler is aiming at a full-size Dodge Ram diesel-hybrid pickup capable of 30 miles per gallon. Ford is working on a diesel-hybrid wagon.
Fuel mileage claims on all vehicles sold in the U.S. will go down in theory – though not in practice – this fall when Environmental Protection Agency changes the way it calculates fuel consumption to reflect real- world driving conditions, not the ideal (that is, fictional) conditions it used in the past. EPA estimates for conventional gas vehicles are expected to drop by about 10 percent, but hybrids could see their numbers fall 25 percent. That will dim the expectations raised by current leaders like the Prius, which now registers 60 mpg in city driving on its sticker.
But once the market adjusts to the government’s more realistic numbers, car buyers and manufacturers alike can be expected to continue their quest for more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.
