So who's buying hybrids anyway? And why? And not just hybrids but any alternative engine vehicles, whether electrics, hydrogen fueled or fuel cells, or diesels and so on. Hint: It's not about green, it's about the green.
As much as environmental evangelicals have preached the gospel of global warming and other ecological endgames, people are motivated to buy fuel saving vehicles not so much for their granola goodness but to save money.
Or at least so says Don DeVeaux, managing director of the automotive unit of GfK America, a New York-based market research organization.
Although about forty percent of the carbuying public have no intention of buying anything but a conventional automobile, about one-third intends to buy an alternative vehicle "sometime in the future", DeVeaux told reporters in New York yesterday, noting that the rest intend to buy smaller but still with an ordinary gasoline engine (although this may mean turbocharged). Interestingly, that's about the same as the hybrid crowd.
And that's because the primary motivation is money. Two-thirds of alternative vehicle intenders cite better gas mileage as their primary justification. Better gas mileage means more savings. Only 21 percent say it's because driving green is better for the environment (and more likely to be impressed by "green car company" tags. It divides, said DeVeaux, between the tangible--gas and money--and the intangible--green pride and saving the planet.
Naturally, it's not an either-or but shades of green, from the "deep green" true believers to the if-it-makes-business-sense green, which perhaps not surprisingly is the largest group, at around forty percent. It might be expected then that rather than a steady increase in alternative vehicle sales over the past decade, interest has waxed and waned with the increase in gasoline prices (and expectations of higher prices), and that mostly in response to sudden increases in gas prices.
Everyone wants an eco-friendly vehicle, but don't want to give up convenience and lower costs. GfK's studies, however, have shown that young buyers are "less friendly" to gasoline.
DeVeaux's advice to car companies--he performs market research, remember--is that they should focus on "primary motivators." Although some people will buy green regardless of cost, most people need a cost advantage to do so, though not only in fuel costs.
Second, car companies should work to increase awareness of technologies, closing a "knowledge gap" about green and other benefits of the various alternative vehicles. What does it mean, for example, whe Chevrolet calls the Chevy Volt "an extended range hybrid", for example.
And third, manufacturers should concentrate on delivering "benefits"--such as the ultra-high mileage of Mazda's SkyActiv system--and not so much technology. It's the bottom line, not how one gets there.
Eventually, he said, it comes down to cost: I'll be green if it saves me green. I'll save the planet...but show me the money.
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