HYBRID VEHICLE NEWS.

I’m re-posting Gas 2.0. his blog entry for today. The no reply window does not allow me to ask in advance. So credit is not mine.  I’ve spread the word about this awesome blog before. As a hybrid vehicle owner, I love supporting the industry that will help us curb carbon emissions.

Sales Of Alt-Fuel/Hybrid Vehicles Soar In U.S
Posted: 07 Nov 2012 12:00 PM PST

Is 2012 the year that alternative fuel vehicles finally come into their own? It’s starting to look like that after a particularly strong October saw alt-fuel and hybrid car sales set a sales record for the third consecutive month. All told, more than 46,000 alt-fuel vehicles were sold in the U.S. in October, putting sales on track to break 500,000 alt-fuel sales for the year.

Leading the sales charge was Toyota, accounting for more than half of October alt-fuel sales with over 24,000 units sold. 16,774 of those sales came from the Prius family of hybrids, including nearly 1,900 Prius Plug-In models.

Those are good sales no doubt, but the Chevy Volt still leads the plug-in hybrid market, selling 2,961 Volts in October. The Nissan Leaf also performed admirably thanks to a new $199 month lease deal that helped move 1,579 Leaf EVs off of lots. Even Ford had good news to celebrate, including 118 sales of the Ford Focus Electric.

As already noted, the Ford C-Max Hybrid started off strong with over 3,000 units sold in its first full month on the market. Diesel vehicles also had cause to celebrate, with Volkswagen seeing a 43% increase in diesel sales over October of 2011, selling 8,235 units.
All tallied together, alt-fuel vehicle sales in the U.S. have already reached 446,000 units. With another couple of months like October, sales should break the 500,000 mark for the first time ever in the U.S. It looks like the tide might finally be turning against gasoline.

DO HYBRID VEHICLES REALLY SAVE YOU MONEY?

I bought the first Hybrid Toyota in 2000 imported into California, a 2001 model I had waited, and waited for. My son loves it when I’m on the road and he gets to save money on gas by driving my Prius.

When I first bought it, I let everyone drive it, even strangers on the street who would stop and ask me about it. All were surprised by its power. For some reason most people assumed it would be slow to pick up speed and get up and go.

Others have asked me about savings vs. the heavier price tag and I couldn’t answer that, except to say, a hybrid puts less carbon in the air, and that benefit alone is worth it to me. Today, I borrow from GAS 2.0 blog to report these figures.

Industry analysts at Vincentric recently tested 25 popular, US-market hybrid models and compared them to equivalent ICE versions in an attempt to find out which hybrids (if any) deliver real savings over the life of the vehicle.

Surprisingly, 11 of the 25 hybrid models tested actually did save their owners money! Check out the top 10, below.

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1. Lincoln MKZ Hybrid (-$7,001)
2. Mercedes-Benz S Class Hybrid (-$4,242)
3. Lexus HS 250h (-$3,747)
4. Toyota Prius V (-$1,804)
5. Toyota Prius C (-$1,469)
6. Ford Fusion Hybrid (-$1,202)
7. Kia Optima Hybrid (-$779)
8. Porsche Cayenne Hybrid (-$672)
9. Honda Insight (-$656)
10. Hyundai Sonata Hybrid (-$319)

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Overall, Vincentric noted that the average cost to own and operate one of these hybrid vehicles was $1,223 more than their all-gasoline powered counterparts over 5 years. That figure was calculated assuming 15,000 miles of driving per year. Fuel prices used in this report were calculated using a weighted average over the previous five months. Vincentric’s own summary of their findings notes that “the range between the best and worst savings was significant, with the 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid saving buyers $7,001 while the 2012 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid cost buyers over $8,065 more to own (than comparably equipped conventional vehicles).”

So there you have it. And no one questions the power of hybrids after many years on the road of so many countries. Auto makers around the world have produced all-electric vehicles that manage over 100 miles in range per charge and hybrids that can get over 280 eMPG.

The electric vehicle is here to stay unless they come up with something better and cheaper.  And, car companies  are already working on it.