----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Blanton" > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/hybrid.html
This is an insightful article !! (cuts no Koerners, so to speak) and it highlights one marketing niche that Detroit totally bumbled (sadly, as many of us would like to buy an American-made Hybrid car. The average fuel economy of all 2004 US vehicles was actually 6 percent less than it was in 1987 ! and that is after averaging in the surprisingly large number of Priuses... (Pria? Prii?). US automakers say they're just giving the market "what it demands" - which sounds like some more of the same BS and "your-fault" scape-goating that we've heard before. The new Ford hybrid (licensed from Toyota) is a step in the right direction and has to be commended for this initiative, kind-of, but after all the Explorer, Expedition and Excursion pain it has inflicted on thousands of unsuspecting consummers and suburbanites over the past few years, one should wait and see if Ford has pulled it off. Koerner writes, "Who but a tree hugger or a Hollywood politico would pay $20,000 for a four-door hatchback with a puny 1.5-liter engine? Toyota COO Jim Press has heard the question before, and he jumps on it. "How much premium are people paying today for their Hemi V-8?" he asks, referring to the 345-horsepower engine that's an option on the Dodge Ram pickup. The answer: about $1,000. "What do they get out of that? They can go faster from stoplight to stoplight. [with a stop at the filling station, the cynic might add] Why wouldn't they pay for a more fuel-efficient engine that gives you better performance but also saves the planet?" In my neighborhood (which is not average but not treehuggers either, just environmentally conscious) we unoffically counted 7 new Prius about of about 31 new cars since 2004. Most of the rest were super-size-it SUVs, largely driven by soccer-moms-on-cell-phones (a threat to all law-abiding citizens) - quite a contrast. BTW Koerner says " Some fanatics even drive shoeless to be in better touch with the accelerator. For true masters, 50 miles per gallon is a piker's score; they shoot for a consistent 60. When it comes to gas mileage, Prius owners can make TiVo users and Mac addicts seem blas�." My neighbor who did the unoffical count (and is a Prius evangelist) has gotten ~60 mpg from the start and he says "it's not that hard." There is one little trick (undocumented feature) that allows the car to run on battery power for longer. BTW Toyota announced two years ago the launch in Japan of the made-in-U.S.A. VOLTZ, built by Toyota and General Motors at their joint plant in California. They may offer a hybrid version here. I am hoping that the incredible popularity of the Prius will mean that they will built something like it in the USA soo and then people who want to "buy American" can feel doubly socially conscious. According to a local paper, Toyota is indeed considering shifting some of its hybrid car production to the United States because of extraordinary demand. It will not be long before they are the number 2 US manufacturer. Currently, the only hybrid made in the US is the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV... and it does seem to cut some Koerners. http://www.hybridcarguide.com/news/2004/10/ Jones The fact that there is now a popular web site devoted to hybrids tells you a lot about this trend.
