Hybrids a tough sell?
Sluggish sales growth or normal adoption cycle?Last Friday I read BW's Why hybrids are such a hard sell, and I thought it was a worthless piece. How can one discuss an emerging technology, such as hybrid technology, without even addressing the normal evolution of emerging technologies?
Surprise, surprise, BW lets readers know, hybrid cars aren't dominating the world of automotive sales mostly because of their price. Unbelievable!
Finish, Hybrids a tough sell?
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:28 AM
1 Comments:
(Rest of Story)
Man, back in the 80's I wanted a Commodore 64 quite badly, but my parent's said it was too expensive. Then I wanted an Apple, and I heard the same excuse. Finally, more than a decade later I bought my first PC - even though I thought it was too expensive, but I called it an investment.
Yet today, a good TV costs much more than a desktop PC that has far more computing power than the entire Apollo moon mission. But that's the life of an emerging technology.
Just a few years ago notebook computers were also too expensive, now it seems every college student has one. Even cheaper technologies, such as cell phones, took at least a decade to be accepted by anyone other than early adopters. But again that is simply the normal kind of adoption cycle one expects from emerging technologies.
So, aren't hybrid vehicles simply following the same emerging technology patterns?
Let's get real for a second - most automakers don't even have one hybrid vehicle on the road yet, yet somehow they are already supposed to be more mainstream? Besides, even if consumers were ready to accept hybrids as mainstream products, there simply aren't enough hybrid parts to make them mainstream.
Hybrid cars, plug-in hybrid cars and electric vehicles are the future and they could be just one battery breakthrough away from mainstream status.
Today, however, hybrids don't make economic sense for everyone, unless the environment is your primary concern. And, even if they do make economic sense, hybrid-savings require long-term ownership. Unfortunately, as credit card debt and reverse amortization of mortgage loans demonstrate, Americans just don't like to think long term. So, why should we expect Americans to think differently about foreign oil dependency, global warming, fuel economy and hybrid cars?
To think that hybrids should already be more mainstream defies the laws of technology, economics and, quite frankly, common sense. Hybrid vehicles, at least as far as Toyota is concerned, are right on schedule - maybe even ahead of schedule considering the success of the Prius.
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