Cake eaters: America and hybrid cars
88 percent of US adults believe hybrids are strategically importantWow. I guess I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm certainly disappointed.
A recent study finds that 88 percent of US adults believe that hybrid cars are strategically important to 1.) Reduce foreign oil dependence, 2.) Save and create auto-related jobs, and 3.) To help the environment.
Unfortunately, only 23 percent of Americans are willing to pay extra for hybrids. 35 percent will only buy a hybrid if it costs the same as a comparable non-hybrid. Another 33 percent will only buy a hybrid if it costs less than a comparable non-hybrid.
So, a majority of Americans believe in the strategic importance of hybrid cars for national security, jobs, and the environment, but most are willing to invest NOTHING in these strategically important vehicles? Shameful. What a bunch of selfish, vision-less cake eaters.
Anyway, might this attitude change if more marketing tying hybrids and foreign oil dependency replaced some of the environmentally-skewed commercials of today, since that issue most resonates with Americans? Then again, since there are so few American-made hybrids, such a message would probably be pointless.
Labels: Foreign Oil Dependency, Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:10 AM
9 Comments:
Another 33 percent will only buy a hybrid if it costs less than a comparable non-hybrid.
So, a majority of Americans believe in the strategic importance of hybrid cars for national security, jobs, and the environment, but most are willing to invest NOTHING in these strategically important vehicles? Shameful. What a bunch of selfish, vision-less cake eaters.Man, this is IMHO very American. They will buy only if it costs less, e.g. on Christmas sale :-)
May be, many of them will buy if they still cost more, but the gas is $8. Glad to hear though that things are changing. Some friends of mine think hybrids are nonsense. If gas is expensive, just earn more money, lol :-)
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This is not surprising to me. Last year when my wife got her Toyota Prius a friend asked me if I had estimated how long it would take to payback the "hybrid premium". He seemed truly surprised when I told him I hadn't attempted to estimate it since I didn't care - using less gas just seemed like the right thing to do. As a culture we have become so shallow that the only thing that matters is immediate monetary/financial reward.
i know plenty of people that think hybrids are nonsense as well. still, these are people that believe hybrids are important, yet a third of them will only buy a hybrid if it costs less?
that's just....nonsensical and sad.
certainly i think gas prices would have a big impact on these people's buying decisions.
i also believe that if Ford was today selling something like the Prius and marketed as an american-made foreign oil dependency fighter, you could probably swing some of these people to more rationale thinking - i hope.
right now, foreign hybrids touting their global warming-fighting just doesn't resonate with lots of americans. so, hopefully, that accounts for some of the odd results in this study.
anon-
i agree. yet that bottom third is beyond shallow. i just hope there is some confounding variable in these results somewhere.
Indigo Incarnates
It always cracks me up how the average American is willing to invest nothing for the good of this country and to do nothing for the good of this country. If America had this culture during WWII we would all be speaking German now!
Indigo, just for the sake of truth: it wasn't US who did most of the job during WWII. It was the Soviet Union. Though US and Great Britain also participated a lot. However, in the WWI, it was US that helped greatly to defeat Germans.
I would like to know what is done with the battery packs when they reach there end life after 8 years or so, and if it is a true plug in where does this power come from, coal burning facility. I have driven the Prius, the Escape and even the tank of hybrids the Tahoe and have noticed that unless you are under 30 mph you are running on the gasoline engine. I think the potential is there for the hybrid but to say that unless you drive one you are a cave man is nonsense.
the battery packs don't die after 8 years, they are meant to last the life of the vehicle. there are hybrids with hundreds of thousands of miles on them still using the same battery.
today, most Toyota batteries, for instance, are almost 100 percent recyclable. in the future, such as with lithium, even after batteries aren't useful for cars, they will be recyclable for other applications.
in terms of coal power: 1.) coal is a domestic source, 2.) its cleaner than burning gasoline.
after 30 mpg many hybrids continue to use both electricity and gasoline, which still means less gasoline overall.
also, i'm not calling non-hybrid drivers cavemen. however, i will call non-hybrid drivers IDIOTS if they are only willing to buy a hybrid if its cheaper than a conventional vehicle, despite the fact they believe hybrids to be strategically important for america.
for those not willing to pay a little extra for a hybrid - that pays for itself after a couple of years - to help fight foreign oil dependency despite their belief that such a fight is strategically important, well....... you tell me, what should we call them?
selfish? ignorant? hypocrites?
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