Comments on: Oil Hits $75, Reminds Car Buyers of Volatility

By: tapra2

tapra2 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 06:30:08 +0000

then the consumer will be more open and quicker to buying a hybrid car,” Lonnie Miller, R.L. Polk's director of industry analysis, told HybridCars.com. “Hybrid registrations go up shortly after fuel prices go up.Consulting Blog

By: maggot face

maggot face — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:25:04 +0000

fuzzy mc fuzz pants.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:57:02 +0000

i think hybrid cars are a good solution to the environment

By: DC

DC — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:58:35 +0000

Its even easier than that. Remove the mass of overt and hidden subsidiestax breaks etc. that the dirty energy industry has written in for itself over the last century(mainly in the US, but not limited to) and watch the price at the pump double or triple overnight. No new taxes required. It is a "free-market" failure that such a primitive harmful energy system was allowed to dominate the world in the first place.

By: RKRB

RKRB — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:07:14 +0000

This fine article seems to show the rather intuitive point that when a commodity costs more, consumers will try to find ways to use it more efficiently. Perhaps one way to use this data is to make the rise in fuel prices predictable and stable. The article made an excellent point that the price of gas correlates with higher interest in fuel-saving technology like hybrid vehicles, but it is likely that this interest correlates even more highly with the anticipated future price of fuel (which may explain the lag you see in the charts). At present, no one can really predict the future price of fuel with much certainty (people have been trying to do this for years without much refinement or success, despite all the certainty you hear on the issue), and those who believe the price of fuel will eventually become more affordable (“as it always does”) are probably more likely to buy less fuel-efficient vehicles.
Several past postings have made the excellent point that perhaps the best way to decrease fuel use is to increase its relative price. One way to make fuel price rises more predictable, stable, and socially useful is to add on a specific fuel tax increase of, say, 25 cents per gallon a year from now. The next year the tax will increase another 25 cents, the following year another 50 cents, and so forth. This would occur no matter what the market price of fuel would be. Yes, this is a tax, but it would make future fuel prices more predictable, and when they are predictably higher, more people will try to factor conservation into their long-term purchases (like automobiles and power consumption). It would also not take away incentive to explore for new sources of fuel, since fuel use will still be high enough to be profitable for companies engaged in supplying fuel by exploration and production. It would also be a way to divert fuel price increases from unstable and unfriendly foreign governments into something more useful (like decreasing our national debt or borrowing from other countries). An incremental, long term price increase would also make it far easier to factor efficiency into planning.

By: Robcares

Robcares — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:06:20 +0000

It could also show the the general public is short sighted and brainless. Tax usage in order to cut our dependency on oil and cut emissions, it’s the only way to get people to change.

By: Robcares

Robcares — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:03:11 +0000

It could also show that the general public is short sighted and brainless. Tax usage in order to cut our dependency on oil and cut emissions, it’s the only way to get people to change.

By: Samie

Samie — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Not sure "The peaks and valleys ride together" can always show a perfect example of consumer habits & unemployment is a lagging indicator along w/ economic cycles needing to be at least 3 quarters of expansion to move out of a recession. Also some part of the indicators need to show investments into oil futures as this is often a speculative factor. Another important indicator of hybrids should include actual competition w/i the market.

EV's will not show the same comparisons in the long-run I believe due to convenience factors of not wasting time to fuel them up at a gas station or going for routine oil changes. In all of this I'm not saying price of petro or uncertainty about future prices is not one of the main reasons people buy hybrids followed by environmental concerns but as long as vehicles have ICE's we will see these general but not perfect comparisons.