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Originally Posted by stoner
Unfortunately, most people will only see a monetary incecentive to buying a hybrid, regardless of environmental issues. I suggest US fuel prices are still not high enough, or people have too much money to waste on fuel - but 50% of owners expressing a preference still aint bad.
Hopefully most cars will soon become PZEV anyway.
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I agree, US fuel prices are really low as compared to most other places, as are Canadian fuel prices, even though marginally higher they really haven't pushed people to think in terms of efficiency at all. Smart people are catching on and thinking about it now, but really not a lot of people can afford to drop the cash on a new vehicle, so those factor in as well, but way way too many SUVs being cranked out. Why not produce very few of them, not have them on the lots and make people order them and wait? That would make a lot more sense if the corporations actually wanted to do something about the fuel consumption problem, but it's rather obvious they just need their profit fix, at any cost.
When I first heard an announcement about the new Beetle they said it was going to have a diesel/electric hybrid option, and I was really excited about it, but by the time it was on the market it had no such option, and still doesn't. Sad, considering how far ahead that would have put VWs at that time, and all the nice upgrades and modification that would be around now. These corporations always look at products through the scope of "how many can we sell" and that sort of thing, and if they don't think there will be enough demand for x or y then it's dropped, especially if it's something that's not as profitable, such as hybrid technology.