Fuel-Efficient Hybrid Vehicles are Here to Stay
By Ron Cogan, General Manager, GreenCar.com
By Ron Cogan
By now, it's no mystery that historically high gas prices are driving interest in more fuel efficient vehicles. This is a predictable trend that has occurred during both of this country's oil crises in decades past. What we learned from those experiences is that the desire to drive efficiently is transitory. Once a crisis has passed, interests edge back to the desire for vehicles that fit the cliché "bigger, better, faster."
By itself, this is not a bad thing. Great performance, comfort, and luxury have long been
traits sought out by new car buyers, and for good reason. While some people look to vehicles solely for their function — appliances on the road, if you will — most seek very specific attributes that speak to their needs and a personal connection as well. That's why we have so very many vehicle models on the market today and so many trim levels. The problem is, "bigger, better, faster" is too often translated into new automotive product that provides these attributes at the expense of efficiency or even logic.
We now know that horsepower can be achieved without sacrificing fuel economy. How else could you explain some of the high-performance sports cars out there powering their way through turns with small but powerful engines? Or more appropriately, the new generation of hybrid sport utility vehicles that are achieving up to 35 mpg? Honda's answer takes form on many levels, but perhaps the most telling is its Accord Hybrid, which offers more horsepower and greater fuel economy than the previous top-of-the-line conventional powerplant.
Some disagree with the logic of using hybrid technology to produce greater power and not just substantially higher fuel economy. But not everyone wants a two-seater that gets 60+ mpg, or a five-passenger sedan offering 45 to 50 mpg. Many want an SUV, and if it gets rather astonishing fuel economy of up to 35 mpg, that's an important plus. The same holds true with those who will shop the many hybrid sedan, sports car, minivan, pickup, and crossover hybrid models that will surely come in just a few short years.
Recently, Green Car Journal produced an advanced technology vehicle ride-and-drive
for the Sierra Club at this organization's first-ever Sierra Summit national convention.
Here, it was interesting to witness the level of enthusiasm shown by attendees as they drove hybrid, natural gas, and fuel cell vehicles on the streets of San Francisco, California. There were many questions about fuel economy, emissions, availability, and
how hybrid technology works. There clearly was a connection between the environmentally-inclined and the hybrid vehicles there — the Toyota Prius and Highlander
hybrids, the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrid SUVs, and Honda's all-new
2006 Civic Hybrid...a connection that didn't exist to this degree even a year ago.
All this shows the wisdom of the cleverly-scripted phrase from Field of Dreams: build it and they will come. From all appearances, the growing array of gasoline-electric hybrid models in showrooms will prove a powerful draw for new car buyers, bringing greater numbers of fuel efficient and extremely low emission vehicles to our highways.
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