One Third of Car Buyers are Considering a Hybrid
January 25, 2008
Despite record highs in gas prices and no sign of a fall in the near future, a new survey by automotive web site BuyingAdvice.com, shows that there is still resistance among consumers towards buying hybrid cars.
Only one third of new car buyers polled said they would consider buying a hybrid vehicle as their next car.
The poll was conducted among over 3000 users of the web site’s price quote service, which processes more than 50,000 requests for competitive online price quotes each month. All participants stated that they were within 30 days of buying a new vehicle.
This result of hybrid interest came despite the poll’s finding that a majority of buyers believed that hybrid vehicles offered an overall cost saving over conventionally powered vehicles. In fact, 58 percent of respondents said that they believed hybrids would provide a reduced cost of driving even with the higher sticker price of the vehicles.
Fifty percent of those surveyed said that reducing the cost of hybrid vehicles was the change that would prompt them to consider purchasing a hybrid.
The lowering of prices was by far the most popular change that our sample thought would bring hybrids more into the mainstream, with the second most popular option, broadening the range of hybrid models, being chosen by 20 percent.
In terms of the most important factor in vehicle choice, fuel economy was chosen by fifty percent of the sample. This percentage was more than twice the number of buyers who chose performance as their chief determining factor instead.
Hybrid vehicles still make up a small percentage of vehicles on the American roads. Only 1.5 percent of new car sales in 2006 were hybrids, which is the last year for which official figures were available. But increasing numbers of hybrid models and rising gas prices are expected to expand the sector in the next few years, according to industry forecasts. And even early reports on 2007 sales indicate a significant increase in the hybrid sales this past year.
The study was the latest in a series by the consumer advice and price quote web site that provides one of the most current and comprehensive insights into the automotive market today.
