Buyers Browned Off With Hybrid Green Cars

[f-wolf]

Buyers browned off with hybrid green cars

July 10, 2010

THE federal government's billion-dollar green car scheme has stalled on the starting grid.

The first subsidised project, Toyota's locally built hybrid, is selling well below expectations despite a booming vehicle market.

The Hybrid Camry, which began rolling off its Melbourne assembly lines six months ago, was expected to attract 10,000 buyers this year, but fewer than 3000 had been registered at the halfway mark, this week's figures reveal.

A string of record months for vehicle sales and an aggressive marketing campaign by Toyota failed to stimulate demand for the Hybrid Camry, hailed as a new era in Australian manufacturing by Kevin Rudd when he launched it in December, just before he flew to Copenhagen for the ill-fated climate change summit, and the project was granted $35 million from the green car scheme.

A sales breakdown of customer types, obtained by The Weekend Australian, shows 571 of the 2960 sales are awaiting test drives in dealerships or being used by Toyota, while the customers Toyota was hoping to attract are shunning the car, which costs $36,990.

Business fleets have bought 506 Hybrid Camrys, with taxi and rental operations accounting for another 333. Private buyers, who were expected to account for 3000 sales a year, took just 657.

"There's still a bit of apathy in the retail and business fleet market towards low-emission vehicles," said fleet consultant Tony Robinson of Innovation Sureplan.

"The population hasn't been won over, and before we see a groundswell towards it, we'll have to see an escalation in fuel prices."

By far the biggest buyers are governments, mostly state governments, which have bought 755. The Victorian government committed to purchasing 2000 before the price was announced.

The Toyota Prius, launched as a new model a year ago, is also underperforming, with sales down 16 per cent to 1019 to the end of last month, despite Toyota's forecast of 4500 buyers this year.

Consumer research by Roy Morgan shows most potential buyers baulk at the starting price of hybrids, even though the petrol-electric cars are cheaper to run.

As well as the $35m from Canberra, the Victorian government injected money into the project but has refused to reveal how much, with estimates ranging from $15m to $35m.

Toyota forecast demand for 10,000 a year over the two-year production life, making the green subsidy on each model between $2500 and $3500, in addition to the general industry assistance.

"Our government supported Toyota to secure 3000 jobs in Altona and bolster automotive manufacturing in Victoria," a state spokesman said. "This worthy investment has secured jobs not only at Toyota, but in the Victorian automotive manufacturing supply chain during a period of time where many economies around the world were struggling to recover from the effects of the global financial crisis."

Other green car projects include Holden's plan to return small-car manufacturing to Australia with the Cruze, which attracted $149m in funding, and Ford's four-cylinder Falcon and diesel Territory, which got $42m. All are due on sale next year.

With its local Hybrid Camry and the new Prius in the market, Toyota expected demand for hybrids to blossom to 15,000 cars a year -- triple the best result. However, a decade after the technology was first offered, it remains the least successful alternative fuel option and has yet to muster 1 per cent of the market. This is despite a 17 per cent rebound in vehicle demand this year, a result that has taken the industry by surprise.

Buyers shopping for cheap-to-run cars have turned to diesels, as stricter fuel standards have encouraged importers to introduce a wave of new models, mainly from Europe, Japan and Korea.

From : Buyers browned off with hybrid green cars | The Australian

[Rancidpunx]

I think most people just realise that the technology is just delaying the inevitable. The public would also take years to recoup any benefits after the initial high outlay. By which time a better alternative may well be available making your hybrid outdated and a pointless exercise. Not to mention the speculation on the real impact of the hybrids once you include manufacturing etc into the equation on how green the car really is.

Also who wants to be seen as old and sensible when buying a car, how boring!!!

[tab]

$10K premium for a warm and fuzzy feeling...fck that. Nobody really cares about saving the environment unless they'll either break-even or save money compared to the conventional alternative.

Say based on three years to recover the $10K you need to save $70 per week in fuel, not many would be doing the sort of mileage to make it worth-wile.

...and then it comes time to replace the batteries.

[RegSpec]

  On 10/07/2010 at 1:18 AM, f-wolf said:

an aggressive marketing campaign by Toyota failed to stimulate demand for the Hybrid Camry,

Its no bloody wonder either.....that stupid ad with the acrobats doing somersaults alongside a camry driving up the street used to sh*t me every time it came on.....and they flogged it to death too....

[aiboart]

From its inception the motor car has always had a perfect recycling record, first cycling as spare parts and then ultimately as scrap metal.

Hybrids are different, they do not recycle very well, in fact they are a serious ecological time bomb (as opposed to the make believe 'global warming' scam).

A hybrid car battery will be the asbestos building of the future... a nasty toxic 400kg of Li liability.

Then again, this type of inanity is probably what one would expect from a car design that is optimized to sit in traffic jams in order to 'save fuel'.

Regards,

aa

Edited 10/07/10 11:32 AM by aiboart

[tab]

Had the pleasure of a ride home in a prius taxi last night, owner/driver reckons it saves him about $30 per day in fuel which considering the amount they go through is two tenths of fck all. It has done 300,000 km in four months or something...and is just about rooted and ready to be replaced. With a falcon on LPG