• Hybrid cars Hybrid cars Motor Trend is a magazine for gearheads who like their cars fast and hot. It’s not aimed at tofu-eating tree-huggers. So it was significant when Motor Trend named the Toyota Prius it’s “Car of the
• Hybrid cars
Hybrid cars
Motor Trend is a magazine for gearheads who like their cars fast and hot. It’s not aimed at tofu-eating tree-huggers. So it was significant when Motor Trend named the Toyota Prius it’s “Car of the Year” for 2004.
The Prius is (for now) the ultimate green machine. It’s powered by a hybrid gasoline-electric engine that gets 55 miles per gallon in government tests (although drivers apparently get less). It beat out Pontiac’s reborn GTO muscle car, other macho machines and bouge-mobiles for the Motor Trend prize.
Could it be that it’s now cool to be green? Let’s hope so. This nation spends more than $100 billion a year on foreign oil. Our oil addiction makes us vulnerable to cartels, crackpots, tyrants and revolutionists from Caracas to Tehran. The less oil we use, the better off we’ll be, and hybrid engines currently offer a quick way to cut oil consumption.
Let’s also hope that the success of the new Prius rings some alarm bells at Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. They are slogging slowly into the hybrid business. The Americans (and German-Americans) could be left to suck wind as Japanese firms advance hybrid technology.
Both Toyota and Honda have hybrids on the market. But GM recently said it will delay introduction of a Saturn Vue SUV with a full hybrid engine. Ford and Toyota are scheduled to launch hybrid-electric SUVs in 2005. GM will launch fully-hybrid Chevy and GMC SUVs in 2007.
Meanwhile, dealers can’t keep the Prius on the lot, and many have waiting lists for the $20,000 cars. Toyota planned to sell 47,000 this year. That’s a drop in the bucket in the car business, but it shows that demand is there and will grow if nudged by advertising. J.D. Power, the auto survey company, expects 500,000 hybrids of various makes on the road in five years or so.
In the 1980s, Japanese automakers ate Detroit’s lunch by offering high-quality cars while Americans were still making lemons. That’s something to ponder as the Japanese move ahead in hybrid vehicles.
Uncle Sam could help. The government offers a $2,000 tax deduction to buyers of hybrid cars. That’s scheduled to drop to $1,500 next year and disappear in 2007. The energy bill, which died in Congress this year, would have extended that deduction and added tax credits for hybrids and other alternate-fuel cars. The energy bill was largely a massive giveaway to special interests from oil-drillers to corn-growers. But, given our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, a modest tax break for hybrid-buyers makes good sense.
