Hybrids still just too expensive?
Perfect, except for the price?Stopped by the book store yesterday to check out the latest editions of the auto rags and picked up a few.
One of the magazines had a cover story on Ford and a bunch of type on the Fusion hybrid. When I put it on the counter, the clerk said, "What a great looking car. It's perfect, except for the price. It's way too expensive."
Starting at almost $28,000, the Fusion hybrid certainly isn't cheap, despite its very impressive city fuel economy numbers. This high cost might also explain why Ford is only planning to produce 25,000 Fusion hybrids per year.
Fortunately, Honda is going to challenge the hybrid price threshold when the Insight goes on sale this Spring. Yet, even if Honda can pull the MSRP under $20,000, is that still too expensive for average buyers on a car this size?
Are hybrid cars still just too expensive? Or, do you think the costs are justified?
Labels: honda insight hybrid, Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
6:55 AM
4 Comments:
The Honda Insight is small. I would never pay $20,000 for such a vehicle. I'd much rather take a Corolla or a Fit, even if the Insight recovers its extra costs in fuel savings 5 years. That's too long for payback. It's gotta be 2 or 3 years, tops.
The Toyota Highlander Hybrid is expensive and takes at least a year to realize any worthwhile fuel savings. I like the size, I like the horsepower, and coming from a minivan I like the improved gas mileage. But I was looking for the advertised 26 mpg and was disappointed to hear that I need to "wait until the hybrid engine has been broken in", almost 10,000 miles or 1 year. Currently I get about 23 mpg. Better than the minivan, not as great as advertised.
Hybrids aren't too expensive if they are good hybrids. A poor hybrid is not worth the money.
And what makes a hybrid good in my book is not fuel savings, but emissions reductions (roughly equivalent to mpg), social investment in transforming our dependence on foreign oil long term (not just mpg, but also technology development that is viable long term but needs costly investment today.)
So, the Prius is great (high mpg), and the Volt is ideal (highest mpg, amazing plugin technology, battery development). The Insight is actually good, too, because the Insight technology is so cheap it hints at a future where every car can be a mild hybrid. The Fusion doesn't offer anything above the Prius, Volt, or Insight in my book, it doesn't advance the game.
So, with my dollars I would "invest" in the efforts behind either the Volt, Prius, or Insight, at almost any reasonable price. Maybe even all three, eventually.
The other factor I would consider is "How committed is the car manufacturer to their Hybrid car/program?"
The Fusion/Ford fails on that front.
If I buy a Fusion, there is no sense that I am supporting a company that is investing in Hybrids. Ford may cancel the program next year, for all we know.
For better or worse, GM is all in on the Volt, Toyota has more than proven itself with the Prius, and Honda is clearly making a commitment, and potentially a masterstroke, with their cheap hybrids strategy.
Ford is not betting on their hybrid program, so why should I?
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