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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (647608)	3/11/2012 9:12:45 PM
From: THE WATSONYOUTH	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571399

Despite Gas Prices, Hybrid Sales on the Decline With gasoline prices high and likely to go higher, it might be expected that Americans would increasingly be turning to fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. But sales of gasoline-electric hybrids have actually been dropping. The culprit: the improved mileage car buyers can get from today’s gasoline-only vehicles with internal combustion engines. Hybrid sales accounted for 2.8 percent of the U.S. auto market in 2009, but slipped to 2.4 percent in 2010 and to 2.2 percent last year, according to researcher LMC Automotive. “Consumers don’t want to pay as much as $6,000 extra for a hybrid when they can get 40 mpg on the highway in a standard car such as a Chevrolet Cruze or Hyundai Elantra,” Business Week observes. “And even more conventional cars with hybrid-caliber mileage are coming this year, thanks to advancements that enable engines to burn fuel up to 20 percent more efficiently.” Traditional engines are being fitted with technologies such as electronic controls, eight-speed transmissions, and direct fuel injection, allowing gas to burn more efficiently. The dip in hybrid sales comes even as the auto industry plans to introduce an array of electrified vehicles to meet more stringent federal fuel economy regulations. With those plans, the number of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric models on the American market would rise from 40 last year to 153 by 2020, Business Week reports. But carmakers may rethink those plans in response to slow hybrid sales. Ford Motor, for example, is dropping its hybrid version of the Escape SUV after seven years of disappointing sales.