It’s never made more sense to buy a hybrid or electric car
Time to take the cover off hybrid and EV sales in 2012
And hybrids and plug-ins will probably only make more sense heading into the future
Thanks to Chevy Volt carpool lane access, the Volt is actually a pretty good deal in California. Coupled with state and federal incentives and smart charging the Volt makes long term cost-effectiveness sense.
Hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight make even greater sense, and they don’t even require a tax credit.
And when you consider the long term hedge that hybrids and plug-ins provide against even further gasoline spikes — which seem inevitable — the battery-powered advantage only increases.
Take a look around the Middle East and northern Africa and there are plenty of reasons to worry about oil prices, and those reasons almost certainly aren’t going away anytime soon. According to some in the oil trade, China is filling its strategic petroleum reserves because of the great potential and danger of higher-oil-driving conflicts in this region.
Consequently, this summer the topic will be $5.00 gasoline. Next summer $6.00. And while each spike will probably subside, I’d bet the baseline keeps pushing higher and higher.
And these days people are holding onto their vehicles longer, making the hybrid premium on a Toyota Camry hybrid, for instance, a real investment by 5 years — and that’s at about $3.40 per gallon. At $4.50 that return is even quicker. Hold onto that Camry hybrid for 7 or 8 years and thousands are saved.
For urban drivers the return on the hybrid investment, the hedge against higher gasoline prices, is even greater. In such conditions those 40 mpg vehicles advertised everywhere these days can’t even achieve 30 mpg. I bet if gas prices start pushing towards $5.00 per gallon, some consumers might feel they’ve been duped by clever automaker advertising.
No one ever reads the fine print.
Nevertheless, thanks to higher gasoline prices, it has simply never made more sense to buy a hybrid or electric car, especially for city drivers. 2012 is primed to say a lot — via real world sales — about the interim future of the auto market.
[...] Its never made more sense to buy a hybrid or electric car var addthis_product = 'wpp-262'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":false,"data_track_addressbar":false};if (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}And hybrids and plug-ins will probably only make more sense heading into the future Thanks to Chevy Volt carpool lane access, the Volt is actually a pretty good deal in California. Coupled with state and federal incentives and smart charging the Volt makes long term cost-effectiveness sense. Hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight … Read more: http://www.hybridcarblog.com/ [...]