Flickr photo courtesy of psorgenfrei.
ABC News online writes about how car manufacturers are introducing hybrid models left and right, but few of them actually provide better gas mileage than regular cars.
But enter the showroom, and instead of seeing green, you may be seeing red. Many of the market’s hybrids — cars which combine gasoline engines with battery-powered electric motors — forsake fuel-efficiency in the name of power and performance.
The average gas mileage of hybrid models available in the U.S. is 33 miles per gallon (combined city and highway). But Chevy’s newest Silverado hybrid truck gets only 16 mpg. The newest Lexus LS 600h L hybrid sedan clocks in at 21 mpg, the 2007 Saturn Vue hybrid at 26 mpg.
See pictures of the least efficient hybrids at our partner site, Forbes.com
This contradiction is not lost on consumers. The most recent 2006 J.D. Power and Associates Alternative Powertrain Study found that only 50% of new-vehicle shoppers are currently considering a hybrid — down from 57% the year before.
Are car manufacturers really this dumb? I don’t get it.
It’s clear to me that the reason why most people would buy a hybrid versus a regular car is to save money on gasoline.
Why would someone want to buy a more expensive car with new technology that might break down more often when it doesn’t even provide any benefit other than perhaps slightly lower emissions?
Even Honda did it wrong, and has seen the consequences.
Honda, a company that forged the hybrid car market in the U.S. with the 1999 Insight, understands this. Due to poor sales, the Japanese company is discontinuing its Accord Hybrid, which is considered a “mild hybrid.” Such cars have oversized starter motors that allow gas to be saved when coasting and while stopped, but have no hybrid drivetrains, meaning there is no electric motor to drive the vehicle. Mild hybrids also rarely have regenerative braking — a system that converts kinetic energy from the brakes into electrical energy to help power the vehicle.
I think this is also why people only think of the Toyota Prius when they think of the hybrid.
But at least Honda is starting to catch on!
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The auto makers have every reason to think we are stupid. As soon as Americans start moving toward smaller more fuel efficient cars the dealers slash the prices of SUVs and sports cars, then many people who really wanted one of those cars buy one. We already know that US auto makers are stupid, they can’t believe that most Americans will consider having one gas guzzler and one or two fuel efficient cars, now many households have two or more guzzelers.