Re: Can Hybrid cars compete unaided in the market?
The cost of energy, especially gasoline has to be a lot higher, especially in regards to all the externalities imposed on the public in general because of it's use, such as the recent huge cost of multiple theater wars to guarantee future access to oil for US corporations. If that ever changes, and the burden of the externalities is shifted away from the entire public and onto (proportionally in terms of consumption) the purchasers of gasoline and diesel, hybrids would be in even greater demand than they are now (with the long wait lists).
Government incentives and manufacturers selling them at a loss is only necessary when the cost of fuel is kept artificially low, it may "help" by keeping consumption in check, and therefore the economy can continue to grow without significant increases in overall consumption, but in the long run that strategy backfires because it fails to address the problem, namely our civilization's crack habit.
On another note, Toyota announced quite a while ago (before the second generation North American Prius was made) that they were selling the Prius at a profit, and by now there have been further reductions in cost and more expensive options that bring in more profit per vehicle. I don't know how the other models are doing, profit wise, but no other vehicle comes close to the sales volume of the Prius.
Last edited by Schwa : 02-26-2006 at 03:39 PM.
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