Hybrid Auto Sales Slow: Not Enough Fuel Efficiency Gain To Justify Higher Price

Hybrid cars are not selling. Their subsidized cost is still too high. As gasoline engine cars have become more efficient the fuel savings from switching to a hybrid automobile is not enough to offset the price premium for a hybrid vehicle.

From Bloomberg, "Hybrids in U.S. Lose Appeal to Gas-Efficiency" by David Welch and Jeff Green:

Hybrid sales slowed last year to 2.2 percent of U.S. auto sales, from 2.4 percent in 2010, according to researcher LMC Automotive.

Hybrid Challenge

The challenge with selling hybrids is that gasoline engines have become more efficient and the cost of hybrids haven’t come down fast enough to justify the added expense for many buyers, said David Champion, senior director of the Auto Test Center at the Yonkers, New York, magazine Consumer Reports.