Hybrid car sales drop 40% in the USA
Sales of hybrid cars in the US have dropped by more than 40% in the last year.
Much to the astonishment of the world – well, us anyway – America seems to have fallen in love with the ‘Green Dream’, and has taken to Hybrid Cars – encouraged no doubt by celebs polishing their green halos in a Prius – like clones of Jonathon Porrit.
Which was very good news for the environ-mentalists; the world’s most carbon-addicted country falling in love with the clean, green hybrid car. But it hasn’t lasted.
The latest sales figures from the US show that hybrid sales in August were down by a whopping 40.4% with even the green favourite Toyota Prius seeing sales 37.5% lower than a year before. Can all those Americans have really changed their minds and no longer consider it important to save the planet? No, of course not. They never believed they were saving the planet in the first place.
The American car buying public weren’t buying in to hybrid cars to save the planet, they were doing it to save money. Yes, they had to pay through the nose for the hybrid car, but they were led to believe that the price of oil was inexorably rising and before too long they would be paying European prices for petrol. Which just hasn’t happened.
Even the Obama Government hasn’t started to tax petrol like the Europeans, despite fears that was inevitable (the depth of the recession probably kiboshed that idea). The panic in to hybrids set in when gas hit $4 a gallon (I know), but with gas now at less than $3 there is precious little incentive to buy hybrid. There may even be precious little incentive to buy small cars per se.
Back to the Yank-Tank, Gas-Guzzler?
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