According to an interesting article published in the latest issue of Newsweek Magazine, thanks to the dramatic fall of gas prices, sales of trucks and SUVs have recently begun to rise, while sales of hybrids have become a bit stale.
While this certainly is interesting news, it doesn’t compare to another statistic discovered by Newsweek: nearly 1 out of every 4 (24.2%) households that owned a hybrid car also owned an SUV.
This statistic just absolutely blew my mind. One would assume that if you were environmentally friendly enough to own a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight, that would probably preclude you from owning a Ford Explorer or Chevy Suburban. Apparently that’s not the case.
While I can understand the increase in sales of SUVs and small trucks, thanks to lower gas prices as well as unheard of manufacturer and dealer incentives, it still seems hard to fathom that hybrid sales are proportionately decreasing. Considering up until recently there were long waiting lists for popular hybrid vehicles, it just doesn’t seem logical.
In regards to the one out of four hybrid owners also owning an SUV, this sounds to me like some people were buying hybrid cars just because it was the “in thing” to do, just like several years ago everyone had to own an SUV.
And?
You would rather them have 2 SUVs?
You see, this is the problem with many eco-nazis is that they take an all-or-nothing approach, which pushes most moderates away.
I would suggest that this is entirely appropriate as there is a “best tool for the job” aspect to it. Say you have two kids and they have a couple friends. Or you have more than two kids.
A Prius alone would not work. Probably not even a Camry or Accord – as it is very hard to put 4 kids in a car.
But you still want to commute to work, and that is usually just you. So you get a hybrid for the times when you can use it with 4 people or less, and you have an SUV for more people, or for towing your boat, or for any other situation where you need more capacity.
See the problem with large SUVs is not that they exist, but rather that people use them to pop around town by themseleves.
> In regards to the one out of four hybrid owners also owning an SUV, this sounds to me like some people were buying hybrid cars just because it was the “in thing†to do…
I think a more likely explanation is that people with SUVs are now very aware of the financial impact of high fuel prices, and may take this into account when buying a new / second car.