According to Edmunds.com, about 22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV. The number represents a sharp increase from 18.8 percent last year, and it is nearly double the rate of 11.9 percent just three years ago. Overall, only 45 percent of this year’s hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60 percent in 2012. Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50 percent.
“For better or worse, it looks like many hybrid and EV owners are driven more by financial motives rather than a responsibility to the environment,” says Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell.
It would seem that once one has established one’s moral superiority, left-wing environmental bona fides and gotten the pats on the back from all the right people at the cocktail parties, one has to return to that ever-present, nasty little thing called, “reality”.
“it looks like many hybrid and EV owners are driven more by financial motives rather than a responsibility to the environment”
As it should be. Too bad these a-holes got the rest of us on the hook for billions in government alternative energy subsidies(don’t get me started on the ethanol in the gas that is wrecking my car and their new SUVs) before they finally reconnected with their financial motivation.
Everywhere in North America electricity is sold in regulated markets, operated by government bureaucrats. One only has to look at the two-tier pricing structure for electricity in British Columbia to see how bad things can get in order to understand why markets regulated by government are a horrible thing.
Oil, and its derivative gasoline, are sold in free, unregulated markets. Anyone can be a player, from a two-bit tinpot dictator like for the former Hugo Chavez, to a megalomaniac like Putin, to a first-world country like Canada, to small-time investors who clean out old oil wells with new technologies.
If every vehicle on the road were electric the government would be ecstatic because they would then be able to control the price of nearly all the energy you require for your daily life. Even the supposed business-friendly Liberal government in BC would find this level of control an absolute dream.
It is for this reason alone that I will never buy an electric vehicle. I prefer, wherever possible, to buy the energy I need for my existence from companies operating in a free market.
So even some earth muffins can smarten up occasionally.
BC, well said.
Wherever there is a scam, people will find a way to get in on it!
As with the Community Reinvestment Act that caused the housing
market collapse, it looks like some people are finding a way to
profit from sparky cars.
Once you get the better part of 10k in tax credits, what is to stop
you from simply reselling the vehicle?
If a person plans on buying a “green” vehicle, they are confronted by several issues, not the least of which are:
– if the owner plans on keeping the vehicle for a long time, they must consider the high cost of battery replacement.
– if the owner tries to sell the car privately, he takes a beating on his price because the purchaser considers battery replacement in his costs of purchase.
– same as above in a trade in scenario.
It only takes a couple of vehicles for people realize that these high costs are more than just the high cost of the original purchase.
Simply put, people are coming to their senses.
Imagine that eh..? Its cheaper to use the best ROE fuel than to go Green….DUH.
The same lesson is being taught to all those LOW info morons that kept the Libs in Power in Ontario.
Great Comment BC…Agree 100%
I’ll stick with my 22mpg Duramax thanx very much..!
Cheers,
stk
No one will buy it
All those Cuban’s would love to upgrade…What better deal to get ride of the GM surplus Electric Cars…We get cigars and Cuba gets the Junk. When the Music stops you don’t want to be stuck with the crap..
Perhaps it’s because, like myself, many folks will go out of their way to make the Prius driver feel small. My favorite is the slow then sudden lane drift, as if I didn’t see them. They crap their pants and then get all pi55ed off; but first, they crap their pants.
Perfect cars for Al Gore and all those eco-minded hollywood wanks The Flintstone car just use your feet or the Gilligans Islands car peddle powered and amde from 100% biodegradible material. and for under cover police their the Gadget Van from INSPECTOR GADGET it converts into a police car
Not buying the bullshit…….