Bloomberg reported this week that the Barack Obama administration has bought almost a fourth of all GM and Ford hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, thereby artificially boosting hybrid sales numbers. The question now is: how popular exactly are these vehicles on the American market?
In 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases; two years later, that proportion rose to 10 percent. Meanwhile, consumer sales of hybrids are headed for their third consecutive yearly decline. In other words, the U.S. government keeps investing in a technology that has failed to win broad public acceptance.
These massive purchases by Washington mean that we can't take hybrid sales numbers at face value, but it's hard to blame them for helping an industry that suffered so many setbacks in recent years. Stimulus packages aimed at bringing GM out of its financial misery as well as the $11+ billion in funding to support the technology obviously legitimize the Obama administration's effort to boost sales and earn the trust of taxpayers.
''At some point, the reality is that for this technology to be accepted, it needs to be done without a government crutch,'' said Jeff Schuster, director of forecasting at J.D. Power & Associates. ''But without a huge gas-price increase or further government demand, the natural demand just isn’t going to be there.''
Only 22 of the 14,584 hybrid vehicles purchased by the federal government over the past two years were manufactured by Japanese companies, including 17 Toyota Prius models and five Honda Civic Hybrid models.
According to J.D. Power & Associates, global sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars should reach 954,500 vehicles, or 2.2 percent of the 44.7 million passenger vehicles projected to be sold this year.
Source: Bloomberg
In 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases; two years later, that proportion rose to 10 percent. Meanwhile, consumer sales of hybrids are headed for their third consecutive yearly decline. In other words, the U.S. government keeps investing in a technology that has failed to win broad public acceptance.
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| Photo: Ford |
These massive purchases by Washington mean that we can't take hybrid sales numbers at face value, but it's hard to blame them for helping an industry that suffered so many setbacks in recent years. Stimulus packages aimed at bringing GM out of its financial misery as well as the $11+ billion in funding to support the technology obviously legitimize the Obama administration's effort to boost sales and earn the trust of taxpayers.
''At some point, the reality is that for this technology to be accepted, it needs to be done without a government crutch,'' said Jeff Schuster, director of forecasting at J.D. Power & Associates. ''But without a huge gas-price increase or further government demand, the natural demand just isn’t going to be there.''
Only 22 of the 14,584 hybrid vehicles purchased by the federal government over the past two years were manufactured by Japanese companies, including 17 Toyota Prius models and five Honda Civic Hybrid models.
According to J.D. Power & Associates, global sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars should reach 954,500 vehicles, or 2.2 percent of the 44.7 million passenger vehicles projected to be sold this year.
Source: Bloomberg