Hybrid shoppers: It's not about global warming
The global warming fighter?A few years ago, Hybridcarblog ran a poll on "Why buy a hybrid vehicle?" There were four possible choices: 1.) Cool technology, 2.) Foreign oil dependency 3.) Global warming and 4.) Carpool lane access.
After running the poll on Hybridcarblog for a while, I moved it to a few Soultek pages and kind of forget about it, until the other day.
So far, there have been more than 28,000 responses to the poll and the results are a little surprising. 37 percent of respondents picked foreign oil dependency, 29 percent cool technology, 27 percent car pool lane access, but only 7 percent picked global warming.
While I wasn't surprised that foreign oil dependency was the top reason for interest in buying hybrid cars, I was extremely surprised that just 7 percent picked global warming.
Is the hybrid and global warming angle being overplayed? Are automakers, especially US automakers, completely underestimating the selling power of foreign oil dependency-fighting hybrid vehicles?
Labels: Foreign Oil Dependency, global warming, Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
7:02 AM
6 Comments:
Global Warming is partly why I wish to buy a hybrid, but foreign oil dependency is mainly the reason. It's very interesting how the global warming card could be overplayed by car companies-- since the country is so divided about global warming-- it could give hybrids a better public outlook if oil dependency was in some kind of advertisement. People hate the middle east.
I can't help but wonder if foreign oil dependency would be a better focus than cap and trade as well. We've already put so much money into the auto industry and the people are much more open to the dangers of foreign oil dependency versus the dangers of global warming.
Still, you could fight global warming by fighting foreign oil dependency. Along those lines you could put CO2 limits on any alternative energies, for instance.
Somehow I think there is a more creative, straightforward solution for America that the people would actually rally around if the plan were built around foreign oil dependency.
I'm sorry, but no.
A serious policy of reducing the 30% of our oil that comes from troublesome sources involves substantial development of our own conventional energy resources, and working with the Mexicans (who are our second-largest foreign supplier, after Canada) to modernize their extraction capability without treading on sensitive sovereignty issues.
And that's not even talking about natural gas.
What we know about climate change is that none of what the alarmists have been railing about for the last twenty years, none of the results falling out of GISS or HadCRUT or etc, can be verified by empirical observation. There is simply nothing there on which to base policy.
I am not opposed to alternative energy sources, but virtually every such source has drawbacks to be acknowledged as well. Use it where appropriate, but let's not pretend that we can get by without the conventional stuff.
We import about 70 percent of our oil. Mexican oil is depleting faster than most experts have ever seen.
Oil will be much more expensive in the future and the price competitiveness of alternatives will be far more compelling once gas prices hit $4.00 again.
I don't disagree that we should be utilizing our own resources. Moreover, I would call natural gas an alternative energy.
Inevitably, I'm arguing that we put a line in the sand and decide to be foreign oil independent by 2025, for instance. If that means natural gas, so be it. I'd just argue that any replacement fuels must be cleaner than those replaced as that is the only way to push the technologies and innovations that will inevitably drive the future.
Though global warming is practically one of the things that pushed a lot of people to go green, it isn't the only reason. I got my electric car for the convenience, since gas prices are getting higher each day.
global warming has pushed some to go green, but too many americans have doubts about global warming and cap and trade.
the global warming message will push 5 - 10 percent of americans to pay more for hybrid or electric vehicles, but that isn't the message of mass adoption - at least not today.
today, foreign oil dependency is the issue that resonates with americans when it comes to fuel saving technologies.
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