The common misconception is that hybrid buyers are young and trendy. Based on surveys that HybridCars.com has tracked for a number of years, we know that hybrid drivers are actually older than the average car buyer. They are also more educated, more affluent, and more likely to live in California. A new study, just released from Scarborough Research, may shed light on lifestyle habits of hybrid drivers, such as diet, exercise, Internet use, and political affiliation.
Mike Howard wants Elk Horn, Iowa, to play a role in the nation's future in electric cars. "We have a dream about electric vehicles and we're going to make that a reality," he said. Anticipating an electric car revolution, Howard invested $30,000 to install four charging stations in Elk Horn, despite the fact that the small town currently has exactly one electric car—a Chevrolet S-10 pickup that Howard himself converted to run on batteries.
If ever there was an automotive brand that embodied the spirit of hybrid cars—urban, progressive, outdoorsy, family-oriented—it would be Subaru. But the company continues to trot out cool hybrid concepts, like the new gull-wing Subaru Hybrid Tourer Concept, and procrastinate on delivering a real hybrid to US showrooms.
After years of complaints from blind pedestrians that ultra-quiet hybrid cars pose a safety threat, the auto industry is responding by producing on-board devices that emit sounds, such as jet engines, boings, or human voice saying, “Excuse me.” One day, electric car and hybrid drivers might download “vroomtones” for their cars, the way they download ringtones for cell phones today.
The day after the Obama administration announced rules for tougher automobile fuel efficiency standards, conservative media pundit Glenn Beck ridiculed hybrid cars as undesirable and not worthy of tax incentives.
A Seattle neighborhood website reported a "rash of attacks" against Toyota Priuses. But Seattle Police were only able confirm one incident. "It doesn’t appear at this point to be any sort of pattern,” Detective Mark Jamieson told HybridCars.com.
At a showroom in Tokyo last week, Toyota got in touch with its girly side. With the "DecoPrius," a candy-apple red custom Toyota Prius emblazoned with decorative rhinestones, the carmaker hopes to catch the eye of a demographic that is growing increasingly cold to a product that once exemplified cool: the automobile.
The fourth annual Hybridfest Green Drive Expo, in Madison, Wisc., kicks off this weekend. The event, one of the country’s largest gatherings of green car owners, is not only about Ford and Toyota and other hybrid makers selling their wares. It's an opportunity for the car companies to learn what hybrid drivers like and don't like about their cars.
Hybrid drivers get more tickets and get into more accidents than drivers of conventional cars. That’s the conclusion of a new study of 360,000 vehicle insurance claims by San Francisco-based Quality Planning Corp. A key to the findings could be that the typical hybrid owner is more likely to live in a city, and urban drivers generally are cited for more traffic violations.
Are hybrid cars shedding their nerdy image, and moving into the automotive and cultural mainstream? If the comic writers and producers at The Casual Mafia have anything to do with it, the answer is yes. Steve Lutsk, an actor in the company, said, “Hip-Hop music is flooded with lyrics about Escalades, Hummers and Benzes. We thought it would be funny to have a song about a car that many would consider to be polar opposite."
