Is It Really About Being Green? Hybrid Market Slows To A Crawl With Cheap Gas Prices

There never was a big market for "Green" cars
Even at their highest - they never cornered a big percentage of the marktet because - for the most part - they never offered a true econommic advantage by themselves - and it took government rebates to support that market.

Diesel engine vehicles do not offer an economic advantage - when you consider that you have to pay A LOT more for the diesel engine in the car - as well as paying top dollar for diesel fuel. In my area diesel is about 20% higher than gas - so I would need to get 20% better mileage JUST to break even - something that they barely do.

Hybrids are not only much more expensive and much smaller than other cars (The batteries take up so much space) - that they are truly commuter cars - and again - when you actually work out the costs - they are barely cost efficient.

AND - at least in the USA - people prefer how gas vehicles drive.

I agree that there never was a market for "green" cars - its just a mirage supported by government subsidies.

As for diesels, they make a business case on their own and one that is head and shoulders above the hybrid case.

For most of the country, diesel fuel is basically priced per gallon at parity with 92/93 octane gas. In general, the diesel version of a car/SUV is priced between the "stripper" gas model and the "premium" gas model - unlike hybrids which are always premium priced versus the rest of the lineup.

The best thing about driving a diesel vehicle, is the range you get between stops for fuel. As an example - I drive an MB GL350 bluetek SUV and an S550 sedan.

The GL gets 22mpg in city driving and up to 28 mpg on the highway - which translates to an average distance of 600 miles between fill-ups. In contrast, driven the same style, the S550 (twin turbo 4.6L V8) gets about 17 MPG in the city and at best 24 MPG on highway - basically getting 350 miles on a tank. Granted the GL has a big tank, but its pretty miraculous to get gas only once every two weeks or even once a month. The MB turbo diesel is a nicely tuned powerplant for the driving that we Americans do - not as lightning fast as the turbo S550 but very fast and very torquey.

The best thing about diesels is the range - once you have one, you will never go back.

My point was that for the Average American - Diesels does NOT make a business case on its own - and they do not own the two cars you do either.

When you consider the extra cost of the Diesel engine on most cars - AND - the extra cost of gas compared to the average car that uses regular - it is not possible to come out even during a 3 year lease.

But at the same time - unless you are in the really upper range territory - the diesel does NOT drive as well as a gas car as well.

Yes - I agree that a MB GL diesel is a nice vehicle - but that is hardly a commuter car for the average american

Hybrids are on the wrong cars. I'm surprised minivans are not hybrids. Vehicles like the Expedition, Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, and Escalade should be hybridized across the board.

Hybridizing a Corolla-sized car and making a Prius isn't as wise because it takes a long time for the savings of the hybrid to pay off the initial price difference versus the non-hybrid car.

The hybrid owners I know/knew are frugal hypercommuters. The numbers often make sense for them since we have let our roads go to hell and stop/go driving is the rule not the exception.

The break even point by most estimates is 50K miles. It's actually cheaper to lease and dump a conventional car than to go the hybrid route.

Unfortunately 50K is knocked out in a year of hypercommuting, and not even the most extreme examples.