Why do hybrid cars & other gas efficient cars cost way to much for the people who actually need them?
By Cars & Motorcycles on Feb 22, 2009 with Comments 12
cool beans asked: Just wondering because allot of people who need to save money cant afford hybrid cars.
Tell me what you think and how this could change in the future
Thank you.
Filed Under: Hybrid Cars
About the Author:
New technology is expensive. The initial costs include, all the tooling required to create a production line, research, engineering, testing & marketing. Somebody has to pay…remember the auto makers are going bankrupt!
the real issue is in the technology that the company need to charge to recuperate. also the battery is very expensive and there is not enough battery production that can keep up with the demand.
the hybrid system is a lot more complex to build then the stander internal combustion engine. since the integration of gas and electric motor, drive by wire, ecu incorporation.
the battery manufacturing technology does not allow the suppliers to produce them efficient enough to supply the demand. and with the down fall of the big three, it will trigger many suppliers down full as well.
this can change in the future as now technology being developed. it could be in cheaper manufacturing processes, replacement technology to a cheaper solution. but with the way the automotive industry going right now. it seems like this processes will take even longer.
The car manufacturers will tell you that it is a matter of economies of scale…i.e. when these cars become more popular and can go into greater production, then the price will come down. To get to the critical mass point there needs to be some purchasing support by governments. Some government departments in Australia have made a conscious decision to purchase these kinds of vehicle in an attempt to bring the price down. Unfortunately so far there are still not enough people participating.
You can do your part by agitating your local, state and federal governments to purchase these types of vehicle, in the process helping the numbers AND the environment.
Hybrid cars and other gas efficient cars cost more because the engine takes a longer time to make and need way more parts than regular cars. If you need a hybrid car then you should save up for one and in the meantime you should try to carpool with people more often.
not really. the toyota yaris is the cheapest toyota car, and also out of all of their gas models, the yaris uses the least gas. of course the hybrids aren’t counted.
Two reasons Hybrid cars cost more. The first is the technology is new and not into mass production. Their is limited production at this time.
The second reason is the demand is high, so people are willing to pay more for them. So far the manufacturers of Hybrids have been able to sell everyone they have produced. When demand drops, the price will drop.
Keep in mind that running on electric part of the time is better than running on gas all of the time, But to set the record straight, run down to the car lot and look at the new EPA mileage estimates on Hybrids.
You will find that the old estimates were more than 50% above actual road test. The new EPA rating for the Chev. Hybrid is 20 mpg. The Toyota Hybrid dropped from estimated 65 mpg to actual 30 mpg.
It seems the weight from hauling all those batteries and the weight of two engines (one gas and one electric) used up all the projected savings. Actual road test shows some compact gas engine cars get better mileage than Hybrids.
So better for the enviroment they are, fuel efficiency is a myth.
supply and demand. You want a prius so bad you’ll pay anything for it, have at, you loss is my gain.
You should not even want the stupid thing…ranger c is right…… I want the clean refined diesel on board hear in the US. That is the REAL issue, Why don’t we get that, and the cars that really deliver good fuel economy.
Because whether somebody needs something or not has absolutely nothing to do with how much it takes to make it.
Hybrid cars were designed for rich liberals who can afford to buy them.
That way the rich liberals Like Paris Hilton, Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore can feel good about themselves and look down their noses at the rest of us.
If the rest of us could afford to buy hybrids that would defeat the whole purpose of hybrid vehicles for the rich liberals.
The answerers who point out the low number of these cars being produced as the culprit are correct. Until they begin mass production of 10,000/wk the economies of scale will not bring manufacturing costs down. The other problem is the high-tech nature of these cars. At present we don’t have the storage technology that will let these replace internal combustion engines. We need research dollars to develop better batteries or super-capacitors to power the cars, then tax credits or other incentives to make the first few half million of these cars affordable. Next gen batteries will be much lighter, the Chevy Volt is already a step in that direction and will feature batteries that won’t be dangerous and will still function to some extent even if they’re crushed in a wreck. I wouldn’t want to be in a car full of lead-acid batteries if there was a wreck since even the vapors that can be released are toxic, and the fluids inside are worse.
The main reason is that it’s very early in the life cycle of electric cars and the first models of any new technology are expensive and not too reliable. Over the next 10 years that should change dramatically if the government either funds the effort or at least gets out of the way and lets it happen. I’ll be surprised if the first popular and widely available electric or hybrid is made by a US auto maker since despite the high cost of these cars, the profit margin isn’t likely to be as great as with a truck or SUV.
The best idea they have in the short-term is to make flex-fuel cars that will run on higher concentrations of ethanol, provided we stop stupidly making ethanol from corn. There are several better plants to use, sugar cane, switchgrass and algae all produce far more ethanol per acre than corn does.
hybrids are always going to cost more than their non hybrid counterparts, even if the hybrid outsells the non hybrid. take for instance the ford escape. it has a hybrid option that runs about $6000 more than an equivalent non hybrid escape. why? first is the added complexity in the drive train. it costs more to build the hybrid drive train. two the added battery pack of the hybrid. those things run about $4000-9000 per copy. at a certain point the economies of scale will help reduce the price of the hybrid models, but in the end they will still be more expensive than the non hybrid models.
as for other economy cars, that is a supply and demand issue, as well as one of popularity. for instance when the PT cruiser first hit the market, it was a very popular car, and dealers tacked on an ADP charge. ADP mean added dealer profit. the second reason was that chrysler didnt foresee the possibility of the pt cruiser being so popular, and thus they didnt have enough production capacity at first. thus a smaller supply compared to the demand. as production capacity went up, the proce came down. as the “newness” of the pt cruiser wore off, prices also came down, though the car was still popular.