Drive green, save a little green – or both

By Mike Boyer

Is a hybrid right for you? That depends

As the operator of a Xenia auto-salvage yard, Marty Luckoski is a fair judge of automotive sheet metal.

So when his wife, Ann expressed an interest in a new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid to replace her 5-year-old Chrysler PT Cruiser, he didn’t hesitate.

“Someday hydrogen-(powered) autos will make more sense, but we’re not there yet,” he said a week ago as they took ownership of a bright red Prius at Kings Toyota in Deerfield Township. “Right now, hybrids make a lot of sense.”

The Luckoskis went to Kings Toyota after checking three Toyota dealers near their Beavercreek home, none of which had a hybrid available. Hybrids, which marry gasoline engines for highway driving with regenerative battery system for city streets to produce greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions, were hot this summer when gas prices topped $3 a gallon.

Although gas prices have dropped closer to $2 a gallon lately, area dealers say hybrids are still in demand, despite costing several thousand dollars more than comparably equipped all-gasoline vehicles.

“We’re selling every one we can get,” says Roger Sheldon, salesman at Performance Honda in Fairfield, which has a waiting list for its Civic hybrid. It delivers around 50 miles to the gallon.

Lower gas prices haven’t lessened demand for hybrids at Kings Toyota, which has about a 30-day wait for the hybrid version of its best-selling Camry, said Gerry Carmichael, vice president and general manager.

“I think most buyers think gas prices will go back up again,” he said.

Hybrids now represent just a small piece of the total auto market, but Toyota, whose North American manufacturing headquarters is in Erlanger, sees them as key to its strategy to producing more environmentally friendly vehicles.

“We’re bringing hybrid technology into the mainstream now,” said Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Sales, at the production launch Thursday of the hybrid Camry, the nation’s best selling car, at its Georgetown, Ky. assembly plant. The sprawling, 7,000-employee Georgetown plant is one of Toyota’s first outside of Japan to produce hybrids, but it won’t be the last.

With five Toyota and Lexus hybrids now on the market, Esmond said Toyota expects to sell 200,000 hybrid vehicles this year and 290,000 next year.

Toyota’s goal is to produce one million hybrid vehicles globally by 2012, said Dave Hermance, executive engineer at Toyota’s California-based technical center.

Last year, hybrids represented 1.2 percent of total U.S. vehicle sales of 16.95 million units, or 208,000 vehicles, said Anthony Pratt, senior manager of global powertrain forecasting for J.D. Power & Associates.

This year, the consumer market research firm estimates they will represent about 1.6 percent of all vehicle sales, or 262,000 vehicles.

By 2013, J.D. Power forecasts, hybrids could represent 5.2 percent of the total U.S. market.

R.L. Polk & Co. has predicted that hybrids could make up as much as 35 percent of the U.S. market by 2015 as long as automakers remain committed to producing them.

There’s growing evidence U.S. consumers are willing to give hybrids and other alternative-fuel vehicles a try.

A national survey released Friday found 55 percent of adults asked said they would consider a hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicle, and 27 percent said hybrid vehicles are most likely to be a significant alternative to gasoline-based cars and trucks in 20 years. The survey was done for the West Virginia University-based National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium.

Toyota and other auto experts believe as the hybrid technology evolves, it will be married not just with gasoline engines.

“The electric batteries in today’s hybrid cars are really a power-assist technology that will be married in the future to other types of vehicle fuels such as diesel, ethanol and even hydrogen.”

Carmichael hopes the proximity of Toyota’s manufacturing plant down Interstate 75 in Georgetown, Ky., soon will help him get more hybrid Camrys. With its $10 million investment at the Georgetown plant, Toyota said it expects to produce 4,000 hybrid Camrys a month when it reaches full production next month. The automaker has sold more than 21,000 hybrid Camrys since launching the vehicle last spring. Esmond said expanding production to Georgetown will free up more capacity for the Prius hybrid, which is produced in Japan.

The problem for car shoppers now is that other than Toyota and Honda, whose models make up the lion’s share of the market, they don’t have many hybrid options. About 800 hybrids are estimated to be registered in the seven counties surrounding Cincinnati.

“Outside of Toyota, and to a lesser extent Honda, hybrid sales are not a factor in the least in these Midwest markets,” said Rob Riggsbee, president of Inside Media, a media research, planning and buying agency based in Newtown.

“Honda and Ford sell a few here and there, but the other domestic car companies, for the most part, do not offer up hybrids to the dealers,” he said.

That may be changing, though. General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler both have hybrid-product plans in their future.

GM has plans for a dozen hybrid models by the end of the decade, including versions of its Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade SUVs, according to Automotive News, an industry trade publication.

Honda’s two-seat Insight, the industry’s first hybrid, introduced in 1999, will be dropped this year, but there is industry speculation that Honda’s new small car to be produced at its future Greensburg, Ind., plant will include a hybrid version.

One incentive for hybrid buyers are federal tax credits for purchases this year and next.

The amount of the credit varies according to IRS calculations. But Toyota, which was the first manufacturer to pass the 60,000 hybrid-vehicle production threshold set by the government, saw the size of the credits for its hybrids cut in half on Oct. 1. The reduced credits are $1,575 for the Prius and $1,300 for the Camry and Highlander SUV.

The typical hybrid buyer is paying a premium ranging from $4,000 to $9,000, depending on how the vehicle is equipped. And the typical buyer keeps a new car about five years.

“Even assuming the low end of $4,000, that means a buyer needs $800 a year in fuel savings just to break even,” Pratt said.

The Luckoskis think that’s achievable.

“We did a lot of reading about hybrids and talked to a friend who has one,” said Ann Luckoski.

“My PT Cruiser got only 20 miles to the gallon. The Prius is estimated at 60 in the city and 51 on the highway,” she said. “We think we can make up the additional (hybrid) cost in three or four years.”

Last week, after driving their Prius for a week, the Luckoskis had no buyer’s remorse.

“The Prius is fun!,” said Ann. “We’re getting about 48 miles to the gallon, and we’re still on the first tank of gas.”