"The first buyers were motivated by the novelty of the technology, but today's shoppers are more interested in tangible benefits, such as saving fuel, reducing emissions or reducing dependence on oil," said Walter McManus, director of UMTRI's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation (OSAT).

McManus and colleague Brad Berman, editor of Web site HybridCars.com, surveyed more than 1,500 visitors to HybridCars.com from December 2004 to March 2005 to learn about consumer attitudes and views of hybrid vehicles. More than a third of the respondents said they own a hybrid and most of the rest said they were in the market for one.

The survey found that while owners of hybrids were less likely than other recent buyers of new vehicles to have owned a sport-utility vehicle or pickup truck in the past five years, nearly 40 percent of the survey's "hybrid shoppers" have owned an SUV and about 25 percent have owned a truck.

"The first wave of hybrid owners, who were satisfied with smaller vehicle options, are being joined by consumers wanting to keep their SUVs or large sedans---and not get stung by rising gas prices," Berman said. "Hybrids have quickly shifted from a feel-good ideological purchase to a bottom-line, cost-conscious decision. Hybrids cars are clearly going mainstream."

According to the survey, saving money on gas and cutting down on air pollution were the top two reasons for owning a hybrid (this was true for both owners and shoppers of hybrids). Reducing dependency on foreign oil and emitting less climate-changing carbon dioxide were other main reasons for owning a hybrid (for both groups). However, owners of hybrids were far more likely than shoppers to say t
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Contact: Bernie DeGroat
bernied@umich.edu
734-936-1015
University of Michigan
16-Jun-2005