Posted on 04/22/2015 5:12:28 AM PDT by kingattax
President Barack Obama promised to put a million more hybrid and electric cars on the road during his tenure, but new research shows drivers are trading them in to buy sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
The auto-research group Edmunds.com found that “22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and [electric vehicles] in 2015 bought a new SUV.”
This number is higher than the 18.8 percent that did the same last year, but it’s double the number that traded in their electric car for an SUV just three years ago. Edmunds.com reports that only “45 percent of this year’s hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60 percent in 2012.”
“Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50 percent,” Edmunds notes.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
What the market needs is a hybrid truck
The price of gas goes down and the sheeple think it will never go back up.
The only thing that can take it up is government interference. We are floating on a sea of cheap oil.
Pray America is waking
“What the market needs is a hybrid truck”
Chrysler had a prototype at one point that was a diesel/electric. A military version could also be used as a generator and operated batteries only for a short period to be stealthy.
That’s not exactly what’s happening here. I’m guessing these folks are finally realizing that buying an electric vehicle is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. Even a hybrid often isn’t a good deal. If you take the difference in cost between a typical car and an electric alternative, you’ll find that one of the following will be the case: (1) you have to own the thing for 15+ years to recover the additional cost (at $4/gallon gasoline, and assuming no difference in maintenance costs between the typical car and the alternative); or (2) the price of gasoline has to go up to at least $10/gallon in order to recover the additional cost in 4-5 years.
Chevrolet sells a Hybrid version of the Silverado.
Because it is not a sane choice. It is not cost effective for them. Also, where are all of the charging areas.
Here’s another thing to consider....electric vehicles need to be charged & I don’t think that the current push toward “renewable energy” sources & the push away from traditional power generation would even begin to allow us to meet the need. A better idea would be to force the administration to keep their nose where it belongs. Their stupid ideas have been tried & found wanting.
Because it is not a sane choice. It is not cost effective for them. Also, where are all of the charging areas.
It’s time to replace the batteries, and like their homes, they are under water in terms of vehicle value to cost to maintain. Especially if they financed the vehicle.
while the % has increased, it is still only 22%
one wonders what about the majority of Hybrid owners, the 78%. What did they do?
I dont really understand the battery issue.
If you stopped into a Tesla fast charge station every year or so and swapped your battery you would never need to buy a “new” battery.
Tesla is the only one _talking_ about a serious battery-swap option (methinks they don’t have it in place anywhere).
All other hybrids & EVs have the batteries they came with. There’s no “just swap it” option; you have to buy a new battery, cost around $10,000, and installation isn’t trivial.
For all the hype, Tesla’s aren’t common. They’re the “if I had the money, I’d get a Tesla instead of the EV I got” unattainable option.
Someday the battery issue will be solved via a simple swap, amortizing the cost into something like a rental. Not today though.
A big enough battery to do the job will be so heavy it will cut into payload.
I'm guessing they got tired of squeezing all the kids into that little box, and since the lease was up, decided to live a little.
Yep, they probably planned on covering the costs by owning the vehicle a long time...but nobody told them about the costs of replacing the batteries. It’s better to sell and get something for it now, buy something that doesn’t put you into the same situation again.
Funny how the greenies are willing to compromise their beliefs when they realize it’s hitting their pocket. I hope they’re getting called out on it.
I think that a major reason for people opting to go with SUVs and other gasoline powered vehicles, is that, once they hit the dealer to trade in their EVs and hybrids, the dealer won’t give them the trade-in value the owners had in mind, meaning that, those vehicles are worth a lot less than comparable vehicles that use regular fuels. So, the decision is simple at that point, and they decide that, owning another EV or hybrid isn’t worth taking a second chance on them. Reports are that, EVs and hybrids depreciate a lot faster than regular fuel-powered vehicles, and depreciation rates have been reported to be about 1/2 to 2/3 of the original value, after about 3 or so years; and those vehicles started out being more expensive than the fuel-powered equivalents. Getting another ‘green car’ woud be equivalent to flushing money doen the toilet.
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