Comments on: Lutz Explains Why He Unretired and is Skeptical About Hybrid Car Sales Potential

By: Charlie H.

Charlie H. — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:11:54 +0000

Bob,

Those hybrids of which you are so skeptical…

Factor out fleet sales and the Prius outsold EVERY Chevy car in your lineup. And they sold at good margins. Did your Chevvys?

By: EVO

EVO — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:51:03 +0000

That explains why fuel efficient hybrid sales are down year over year, now that the price of gas has dropped 60% over the last year.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/07/while-most-of-car-market-tanks-hybrid-sales-gain-for-sixth-consecutive-month.html

/sarcasm off

Still, just imagine how it’ll be when gas prices start going up again if the world economy ever grows again.

“Texas Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

If gas stays as cheap as it is the EV won’t make it out of the gate. I don’t think that will happen but I have no idea what the price curve will look like. Cheap gas prices kills everything. Maybe there are a few corporations out there that are counting on that?”

By: solo

solo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:42:19 +0000

In response to DaveG’s comment about calling hybrids green cars. I have to agree. Many people think of hybrid cars as expensive, slow, and simply not fun to drive. Most of these criticisms are true for cars like the Prius and Honda Civic hybrids, the 2 most common ‘real’ hybrids out there. (The Toyota Camry hybrid is just boring because it is a Camry!). He is also right about the payout. I seriously considered a Civic Hybrid. I compared it to the standard Civic and realized the break even point, assuming it was completely reliable, would be 280,000 miles. Simply not worth taking a chance on the technology with my money.

Anyway, I propose a new marketing strategy. Change the Chevy Volt name to the Chevy Opecinator. Paint the show cars with murals of rusted broken down oil rigs rotting in some middle east wasteland. If Lee Iaccoca was running G.M. now, this sales slogan would be ‘Buy a Chevy, starve an arab’.

If you think I’m an insensitive obsolete ignorant bastard for thinking that way, thank you. I am old fashioned. I want my enemies DEAD and nobody in the middle east is my friend.

By: SteveK9

SteveK9 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:08:02 +0000

I sure wish I could get you to look more into Nuclear.

By: EVO

EVO — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:43:52 +0000

You mean like how the 250h hybrid costs $350 less than the 350 ES full gasser?

Ding!

Hybrids are ready for the mainstream market, if you know how to build and market them right. It’s a home run with bases loaded.

The Prius hybrid costs less than 85% of all vehicle makes and models and is among the 10% most popular of all vehicles sold in the US. It’s the real nice farm kid that does lots of errands with no fuss of vehicles, so haters abound. You might not want it for a one night stand media test, but it’s the marrying kind.

Do better, GM.

Next batters up, plug ins and Voltec….

“koz Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

“If only they didn’t cost more”

So, are you willing to pay $0 pemium for any hybrid or do you mean more after factoring in gas savings, higher resale, any aplicable rebates, and any state perks?”