It's not the under-performing fuel-economy levels of hybrids or the premiums car companies charge for them that worry potential buyers, a new study shows, it's service and longevity issues.
The study by Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research of Irvine, California, also shows that a large percentage of its participants also believe that these issues " will be resolved over time" because ''hybrid technology is the wave of the future."
Although hybrids have "been hyped in the media," says Jack R. Nerad, editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, "the average consumer still questions whether hybrids are for them."
In particular, Nerad says, "issues such as repair complexity and cost, and battery-pack replacement are much harder to swallow than not getting the gas mileage or performance you had originally thought."
Based on the results of this study, says Nerad, "it seems the auto manufacturers still have work to do before alleviating consumer concerns about the long-term viability of current hybrid technology."
Nerad says "there also is a healthy amount of consumer skepticism regarding hybrids. More than half of consumers say they are either not interested in hybrids, or feel they need to know more about the technology."
They may be the "darling of the general media," says Nerad, who used to be the editor of Motor Trend magazine, but hybrids make the people who actually have to pay for and maintain them nervous.
Sixty-one percent of respondents to the survey said they "are very concerned about the difficulty and expense of fixing the complicated technology of hybrids."
This makes a lot of sense, even though neither part of a hybrid -- the gasoline engine or the electric motor are that new. What is new and intensely complicated, however, are the interfaces between the two technologies in a moving vehicle, as untold numbers of Toyota Prius owners learned to their irritation earlier this year when their high-profile vehicle simply quit working and rolled to a stop and had to be towed away.
That's worrisome enough, but what was more distressing was that Toyota didn't know immediately why it was happening, or how to fix it.
A further concern for owners of a vehicle with a complicated new technology is that there won't be many service technicians around to fix it, thanks to the way the auto industry handles such things. Because it takes time and money to train and equip technicians for something like a hybrid system, only a few of them are available when the system launches. Technicians are never well trained or widely available for some years, and only then if the technology catches on.
The final potential problem with servicing hybrid technology is that it's not a finished process, so it's changing and evolving all the time so that what we have today may well be out-of-date in five years, so it might be even harder to find technicians.
The other issue with hybrids that concerns 55 percent of the survey respondents, says Nerad, is their limited battery-pack life. Batteries wear out with time, and the batteries in current hybrids are extremely expensive, and it's not clear yet who would have to pay for new ones. If it's the customer, the financial case for hybrids -- which is already bad unless you drive about three times the average annual distance to recoup the steep premiums through reduced fuel consumption -- gets worse.
Despite these issues, says Nerad, 36 percent of the survey respondents think that gas/electric hybrid engines will be the dominant engine type in five to 10 years, three points higher than the 33 percent who think that regular gasoline engines will still be dominant.
In addition, more than half of respondents think that in five to 10 years hybrids will provide higher fuel economy while at the same time offering driving performance similar to gas engines.
For survey respondents expressing an interest in hybrids, the average shopper is willing to pay a premium of US$2,355 to purchase one. The study also uncovered a core group of hybrid advocates (six percent) who say they will buy a hybrid vehicle regardless of the premium they might have to pay for the technology.
photo:Toyota Canada
The study by Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research of Irvine, California, also shows that a large percentage of its participants also believe that these issues " will be resolved over time" because ''hybrid technology is the wave of the future."
Although hybrids have "been hyped in the media," says Jack R. Nerad, editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, "the average consumer still questions whether hybrids are for them."
In particular, Nerad says, "issues such as repair complexity and cost, and battery-pack replacement are much harder to swallow than not getting the gas mileage or performance you had originally thought."
Based on the results of this study, says Nerad, "it seems the auto manufacturers still have work to do before alleviating consumer concerns about the long-term viability of current hybrid technology."
Nerad says "there also is a healthy amount of consumer skepticism regarding hybrids. More than half of consumers say they are either not interested in hybrids, or feel they need to know more about the technology."
They may be the "darling of the general media," says Nerad, who used to be the editor of Motor Trend magazine, but hybrids make the people who actually have to pay for and maintain them nervous.
Sixty-one percent of respondents to the survey said they "are very concerned about the difficulty and expense of fixing the complicated technology of hybrids."
This makes a lot of sense, even though neither part of a hybrid -- the gasoline engine or the electric motor are that new. What is new and intensely complicated, however, are the interfaces between the two technologies in a moving vehicle, as untold numbers of Toyota Prius owners learned to their irritation earlier this year when their high-profile vehicle simply quit working and rolled to a stop and had to be towed away.
That's worrisome enough, but what was more distressing was that Toyota didn't know immediately why it was happening, or how to fix it.
A further concern for owners of a vehicle with a complicated new technology is that there won't be many service technicians around to fix it, thanks to the way the auto industry handles such things. Because it takes time and money to train and equip technicians for something like a hybrid system, only a few of them are available when the system launches. Technicians are never well trained or widely available for some years, and only then if the technology catches on.
The final potential problem with servicing hybrid technology is that it's not a finished process, so it's changing and evolving all the time so that what we have today may well be out-of-date in five years, so it might be even harder to find technicians.
The other issue with hybrids that concerns 55 percent of the survey respondents, says Nerad, is their limited battery-pack life. Batteries wear out with time, and the batteries in current hybrids are extremely expensive, and it's not clear yet who would have to pay for new ones. If it's the customer, the financial case for hybrids -- which is already bad unless you drive about three times the average annual distance to recoup the steep premiums through reduced fuel consumption -- gets worse.
Despite these issues, says Nerad, 36 percent of the survey respondents think that gas/electric hybrid engines will be the dominant engine type in five to 10 years, three points higher than the 33 percent who think that regular gasoline engines will still be dominant.
In addition, more than half of respondents think that in five to 10 years hybrids will provide higher fuel economy while at the same time offering driving performance similar to gas engines.
For survey respondents expressing an interest in hybrids, the average shopper is willing to pay a premium of US$2,355 to purchase one. The study also uncovered a core group of hybrid advocates (six percent) who say they will buy a hybrid vehicle regardless of the premium they might have to pay for the technology.
photo:Toyota Canada