What's mainstream is that 50% of the people surveyed have both heard about hybrids and would consider buying one [when they need their next car] so that means the number of cars being replaced as hybrids will go up, especially as Toyota starts making enough to keep up with demand. It's becoming mainstream to consider buying one because of the public awareness that oil prices are rising, and going to keep rising.

 

Well Jason, this is where polls done by media outlets don't quite work as well as they could. For example, AC Nielson has many interactive consumer surveys going out there. Their sample groups are very large as compared to a week long telephone or sidewalk poll condcuted by a media organization. I doubt that 425 respondants is a significant enough number to be able to rely on when making conclusions regarding 280 million U.S. consumers. However when your sample is 90,000+ respondents, such as the case is with some of AC Nielson's panels, you get very accurate and representative survey results.

The point is that our society has evolved with the media to want polls and survey results and we have not been equally conditioned to understand that the number of respondents is also important to the validity of the data collected.

 

The point of this study was to come to the conclusion that people are skeptical about hybrids. The questions are misleading and the headline reflects their bias. The Chicken Noodle Network was never much of an independent news source, you get the spin big business wants.

 

I don't have a reference, but I was reading about public uptake of new consumer tech from a marketing POV. Apparently it is common to see a shallow slope up to 10%, and then a huge jump to most households having the item.

I don't think hybrids will take the same path quantitatively, but if they reach the knee-jerk status
"I pay too much for gas, so I am getting a hybrid"
"Middle-East oil dependence is bad, so I am getting a hybrid"
They will take off.

Again taking from marketing types, "mind-share" is tremendously important, and hybrids are there, even without much much advertising from the manufacturers.

I often read companies like JD Power who think hybrids will level off at about 3 - 4% of the cars sold. I tend to think they reach their conclusions based on the cars currently available, current price differentials, and current prices of gas. There is every reason to think all these parameters will change in favor of hybrids as time passes.

In the span of four years, Toyota will ramp up hybrid production based on consumer demand from 50K to 500K. They are already thinking about one million hybrids/year -- and Toyota is famous for lowballing eventual demand.

I think everything points to hybrids taking over the market -- including this rather silly survey that started us off

I mentioned marketing twice in one day. Time to go take a shower.

 

I think that when you are watching CNN, you are getting the spin that they want and that their editors want. Who said anything about big business? Toyota and Honda are both big businesses. Ford is a big business. Most major manufacturers and consumer products organizations are "big business". And guess what, big business employs millions of people who then buy stuff and support households and middle class life. Without big business those millions would be out on the street and you can imagine what kind of impact that would have on an economy.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that big business isn't inherently evil. Nor is foreign big business more responsible or forward thinking than domestic big business (there's just a lot more government intervention in their operations and policies, usually reducing their ability to compete and innovate).

I don't mind it when folks have a problem with how news is reported or the skew it is given by editors and writers, however I really dislike it when the activities of the major media are then blamed on totally unrelated influences. Skew in the media is created by media types not by uninterested outside players.

Advertisers have the right to pay for advertising on stations which are aligned with their viewpoint, however if you think that an advertiser has pull, the only they pull they have is their advertising dollars. There certainly isn't a representative of "big business" in every news studio control room censoring or skewing the news. That is just ludicrous.

 

The LA times auto reporter who lost his gig after trodding on GM may beg to differ.

You are right, of course, regarding the how and why that big business skew news. Money talks. And Lots of money has a direct line to the CEO of the news agency.

 

These big businesses have a vested interest in selling the higher profit margin conventional cars over the hybrids. They make more money that way, and it's got nothing to do with employing people at all. There are jobs to be had making cars, no matter who's doing it and what the cars are, but they need to maximize profits, so on the outside they offer up a few token hybrids, meanwhile they still pump all their marketing effort into selling conventional vehicles, as well as have their friends in the media run stories like this to further cast doubt in people's minds. This happens all the time, it's a normal activity in mainstream media.

I'm not saying corporations are evil, but they do have a purpose, and it's maximizing profit, not actively cutting down on the amount of fuel we consume and GHG we produce. That's what the public is demanding, but they continue to crank out the crap that makes them a lot more money. It's macro economics, nothing wrong with 'it' but that is the system we live under.

 

This September will the my 5th anniversary of my Honda Insight. I'm not too worried about the hybrid battery, even after 83,000 miles in the flatlands.

My biggest concern is who works on my car. Four years before my beloved 1988 CRX HF died at 250,000 miles, an incompetant did a tune-up that crippled the engine from a near meltdown. It's a testament to Honda the car survived. Where you hear so much misconceptions on hybrids, I just don't have engine work outside a Honda dealer done on my car.

For those in the Dallas area, Bankston Honda has done a good job on my Insight.

 

Note that Honda was slow in introducing SUVs and trucks because of the management's adversion to selling vehicles with high fuel consumption (case in point: the story of the Acura MDX).

I agree with the above statement in general, but I think Honda deserves a hand for not always being profit-driven when it comes to environmental issues.

 

Isn't it funny how it is possible to present survey results in support of just about any idea?
425 surveyed, half are not interested in purchasing a hybrid.

A): The public remains sceptical about hybrids, about half of all respondents indicated no interest in purchasing a car based on this technology.

B): Support for hybrid technology is overwhelming: about half of all respondents would consider the purchase of a car based on this technology, even though it represents a very recent development.