Will you buy a hybrid or environment friendly car? |
I think it’s just a matter of time before the oil tycoons bend us over and we have another severe gas crunch on our hands. The Katrina impact at the pumps was a recent reminder and lately I’m seeing prices start to rise again as they flirt with $3USD per gallon being the norm.
If that crunch does indeed happen, it’s good to know Seattle is in the list of the 10 best prepared cities for an oil crisis, via energybulletin.net, these are the 10 best prepared cities for an oil crisis:
1. New York, NY
2. Boston, MA
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Portland, OR
7. Honolulu, HI
8. Seattle, WA
9. Baltimore, MD
10.Oakland, CA
Recently here locally a dealership opened up that has started selling environmentally friendly cars. I’d seriously consider buying at least a hybrid car for our next vehicle purchase. Since we purchase new vechicles about once ever 5-10 years that means at some point around 2010 we should be in the market again.
Would you consider buying a hybrid or environment friendly vehicle with your next purchase? Why? Why not?
Did this post make you go hmm?
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Our next purchase’ll be a hybrid. Probably sometime around 2008. The next car after that’ll likely be a hybrid/energy efficient one, since the technologies should start to merge into “Ultra Energy Efficient” cars.
Hell, I saw a demo the other week where a car had energy efficient technology, hybrid technology and a coasting battery and could go 5000 miles on a “tank” (fuel + charging the coasting battery). Add in some solar power or something and fuel effectively just becomes the mechanism to add some extra “oomph”.
It’ll take awhile, and I dont’ think we’ll get away from “filling up” (something) anytime in the next 50 years, but it’s certainly interesting. I figure 50% of cars on the road’ll be hybrids or energy efficient in 10 years.
Comment by Jeremy Wright — April 12, 2006 @ 9:55 am PST
50 years, Jeremy? You really think it will take that long? I think it will be more like 20-30 years before oil becomes the odd man out for fueling terrestrial vehicles. People can’t and won’t pay $5USD per gallon. They will seek other more environmentally friendly alternatives and it’s my understanding that once we get to $3USD per gallon other alternatives become much more viable.
The electric car at the first Seattle Mindcamp was kind of interesting (too bad it crashed).
Comment by TDavid — April 12, 2006 @ 10:03 am PST
Yes, I would, on principle if not for the cost savings. I agree with you, TDavid, that the innovations will be more rapid, but I would predict even faster. Here’s an interesting one: the air car. It runs on compressed air, at a fraction of the cost of gas.
Comment by Sterling Camden — April 12, 2006 @ 12:23 pm PST
I’ve never actually owned my own car (I’m currently a college student), but I’m planning on getting a car over the summer and it will most likely not be a hybrid for the simple reason that I’m not looking for a new car and I haven’t really seen any hybrids for resale that aren’t marked up by ridiculous amounts (Honda had a 6 months back log for for their hybrid at one point, don’t know if the wait is still that long).
But I do want to get a hybrid car (or alternative fuel car) in the future.
Sterling, the cost savings that you are hoping for aren’t actually there. From CNN:
“A hybrid Honda Accord costs about $3,800 more than the comparable non-hybrid version, including purchase, maintenance and insurance costs. Over five years, assuming 15,000 miles of driving per year, you’ll make up that cost in gasoline money if the price of gas goes up immediately to $9.20 a gallon and averages that for the whole period.” Source: http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/23/Autos/hybrid_alternatives/index.htm
Comment by Andrew Ferguson — April 12, 2006 @ 1:31 pm PST
Too bad the Honda is more expensive overall, but as I said I would make the move to less-fossil purely on principle. Other technologies (like the air car) are sure to be forthcoming, so I remain hopeful.
Comment by Sterling Camden — April 12, 2006 @ 1:37 pm PST
TDavid: 50 years until we no longer have to fill up at all. I believe, yeah, 10-20 years and we’ll see the death of traditional fossil fuel use in mainstream transportation.
In terms of the cost of hybrids, the option cost is now down to 1500$. Also, the average American drives more than 25,000 miles per year. Either way, though, more and more states (and countries) are offering significant tax breaks for hybrids. Hell, Honda is running a special right now in Canada for a free hybrid upgrade this month.
Either way, though, expect a major car manufacturer to, in the next 5 years, make “hybrid” standard. I expect it to be Honda.
Comment by Jeremy Wright — April 12, 2006 @ 1:47 pm PST
Down here in New Zealand, natural gas-powered cars (and gas–gasoline hybrids) became very commonplace between 1979 and 1996 (when the government taxed natural gas out of usefulness, and bowed to Big Oil). Consumers never protested, and happily made the change back to polluting. The cynic in me thinks people will buy what they are told to buy, and pay what they are told to pay. In your countries, I suspect Toyota will lead the way with various Camry and Lexus hybrids which will be reasonably priced, and the Accord Hybrid will make an impact on sales, too. Economies of scale will drive down their prices eventually, or even second-hand examples will make things affordable.
But remember if you do a lot of highway driving, I question the wisdom of lugging around batteries as dead weight since at that stage you are burning gasoline—a lot more of it.
We’re all fawning over these hybrids like they are novel, when in fact we got rid of ours 10 years ago … People have short memories. I somehow think North Americans will be smarter than we were.
Comment by Jack Yan — April 13, 2006 @ 5:07 pm PST
Well, it seems like it’s been over a year since anyone wrote here. I have been keeping an eye on The Air Car for a few months, since I saw it on the Discovery Science channel. Does anyone know how that’s going? I would love to be able to get one of those next time I buy a car, and hope they make it to the US quickly.
Comment by Clara — April 22, 2007 @ 12:00 pm PST