"Obama Bolsters U.S. Hybrid Automobile Sales in Waning Consumer Market"
"The government is boosting investment in a technology that has failed to win broad acceptance after more than a decade in the marketplace. Consumer sales of hybrids are headed for their third consecutive yearly decline. Government agencies and businesses have said they also will purchase all-electric models being introduced by automakers including GM."
“At some point, the reality is that for this technology to be accepted, it needs to be done without a government crutch,” said Jeff Schuster, director of forecasting at J.D. Power & Associates in Troy, Michigan. “But without a huge gas-price increase or further government demand, the natural demand just isn’t to be there.”
"Global sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars are projected to be 954,500 vehicles, or 2.2 percent of the 44.7 million passenger vehicles projected to be sold this year, J.D. Power said in an Oct. 27 report. That may rise to 5.2 million units in 2020, according to the report.
Not Cost Competitive"
“The lesson learned is that it isn’t easy to make these vehicles mainstream,” said Brett Smith, who specializes in alternative propulsion vehicles at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “They are still not near the point where they are cost-competitive in the market.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...er-market.html
Like I said this is exactly what would happen. Until they can make a hybrid or electric car that cost something even close (with the savings of gas included)to a normal cost of a car. Listen it does not take a whole lot of intelligence to figure out that if a Volt cost 40,000 and you can buy a comparable model for 20,000 that you will never use anything close to 20,000 dollars in gas. For those dumb twits, that means it is nowhere close to being economically viable.
That also gos for a hybrid. While the cost difference is NOT 20,000 dollars it is 7,000 to 10,000 dollars and the fact is that because a hybrid uses much more gas then a (almost) totally electric car the cost still makes it TOTALLY noneconomical.
Once again, "I told you so", LMFAO.