The Pros And Cons Of Hybrid Vehicles
Executive Summary:
The high price of gas at the pump has many Americans looking for alternates to their gas powered vehicles. One of the most popular option right now is a hybrid vehicle. The question that comes to mind is, are hybrid vehicles worth it? With record high gas prices due to the price of oil, most car owners out there have major concerns over their gas usage. Over the past ten years, the cost of gasoline has grown 250%! The price of oil has doubled since January of this year. The high prices of oil and gas is the driving factor for most of the people to trade their gas powered vehicles for hybrid vehicles. These vehicles promise to give consumers more mileage per gallon, the truth is that only a few vehicles currently in the market …show more content…
Using current gas prices for ten major metropolitan areas, the company studied the number of miles needed to recoup the extra cost of buying a hybrid car over its gasoline-only counterpart. The study showed, for example, that a driver in Los Angeles, the city with the highest gas prices in the study, will break even about 18 percent faster than a driver in Houston, the city with the lowest gas prices, assuming both are driving the same miles.
The study found that, even at today's high gas prices, only a handful of hybrid cars make financial sense for a consumer who buys a new car every five years or less and drives an average number of miles per year. Even at Los Angeles-area gas prices, there are only five hybrid cars that would allow consumers to recoup their additional investment before they sold the car, assuming they drive an average of 15,000 miles per year. In order of shortest time to break even, they …show more content…
Issue 1: High Prices
Hybrid vehicle prices are higher than their gas powered counterpart. The demand for these vehicles in the last year has increased a lot, increasing the prices even further. In some areas people are actually paying premium over MSRP and waiting for more than two years to get some vehicles. The price premium attached to the hybrid vehicles are just too great to be considered a cost savings relative to purchasing their gasoline counterpart. If people knew how long it would take them to pay off the increased premium the demand for the hybrid would be lower than what it is now, decreasing the prices.
Issue 2: High Prices
The second issue with the hybrid vehicles is that there are no laws and regulations controlling the technology, price, and the mileage per gallon required out of these vehicles. Currently, there are hybrid vehicles in the market that offer an improvement of just a few miles per gallon over their gas powered counterpart, yet the manufacturers are charging thousands more for the premium for a so called hybrid
The high price of gas at the pump has many Americans looking for alternates to their gas powered vehicles. One of the most popular option right now is a hybrid vehicle. The question that comes to mind is, are hybrid vehicles worth it? With record high gas prices due to the price of oil, most car owners out there have major concerns over their gas usage. Over the past ten years, the cost of gasoline has grown 250%! The price of oil has doubled since January of this year. The high prices of oil and gas is the driving factor for most of the people to trade their gas powered vehicles for hybrid vehicles. These vehicles promise to give consumers more mileage per gallon, the truth is that only a few vehicles currently in the market …show more content…
Using current gas prices for ten major metropolitan areas, the company studied the number of miles needed to recoup the extra cost of buying a hybrid car over its gasoline-only counterpart. The study showed, for example, that a driver in Los Angeles, the city with the highest gas prices in the study, will break even about 18 percent faster than a driver in Houston, the city with the lowest gas prices, assuming both are driving the same miles.
The study found that, even at today's high gas prices, only a handful of hybrid cars make financial sense for a consumer who buys a new car every five years or less and drives an average number of miles per year. Even at Los Angeles-area gas prices, there are only five hybrid cars that would allow consumers to recoup their additional investment before they sold the car, assuming they drive an average of 15,000 miles per year. In order of shortest time to break even, they …show more content…
Issue 1: High Prices
Hybrid vehicle prices are higher than their gas powered counterpart. The demand for these vehicles in the last year has increased a lot, increasing the prices even further. In some areas people are actually paying premium over MSRP and waiting for more than two years to get some vehicles. The price premium attached to the hybrid vehicles are just too great to be considered a cost savings relative to purchasing their gasoline counterpart. If people knew how long it would take them to pay off the increased premium the demand for the hybrid would be lower than what it is now, decreasing the prices.
Issue 2: High Prices
The second issue with the hybrid vehicles is that there are no laws and regulations controlling the technology, price, and the mileage per gallon required out of these vehicles. Currently, there are hybrid vehicles in the market that offer an improvement of just a few miles per gallon over their gas powered counterpart, yet the manufacturers are charging thousands more for the premium for a so called hybrid