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Hybrid cars leave drivers singing at the pumps
Bill Fitch is singing the jingle all the way to the gas pump, and the bank, as he cruises in his 6-month-old Toyota Prius, a hybrid electric-gas car that averages between 50 and 60 miles per gallon.
While he doesn't drive it every day - he sticks to his old pickup to take him to and from work - it's been a great investment for long trips, Fitch said. And if gas prices continue to soar beyond record highs, either he or his wife will drive the car regularly. In town, it's possible to drive the car solely on the electric engine, once he learned to be more gentle with the throttle,. Fitch said.
Fitch bought the car in September after listening to a couple of radio programs that "tweaked" his interest in them.
But he's not the only one who's been head-over-heels for the model. It was the top selling hybrid in 2004, putting 50,000 cars on U.S. roads. Toyota is expecting to sell double that of its identical 2005 model, according to the Web site hybridcars.com.
Joe Brown, a salesman at Toyota of the Black Hills in Rapid City, S.D., said the company's hybrid car is impossible to keep on the lot - literally. Any that come in have been ordered for a specific customer, and there's usually a waiting list.
"It's been attractive ever since they brought it out," Brown said of the mid-$20,000 priced sedan.
Last year, Toyota couldn't keep up with the number of orders received, according to Brown. The problem was battery production by Panasonic. The electronics company has since solved the crisis by opening a new plant specifically to make hybrid vehicle batteries.
Gillette resident Julie Fall managed to get in on one of the first rounds of orders for the Prius in December 2003 - but she had to buy it sight unseen and without a test drive, she said.
"I liked the idea that it's clean and fuel efficient," she said. And she hasn't been disappointed with its performance yet.
"I went from a mini-van to this, so there's quite a big difference," she said. "It's a fun car to drive."
The Prius was Fall's top choice of all the hybrid models available in late 2003 because it's a mid-size sedan as opposed to the smaller Honda Civic or Insight. Its larger size also hasn't caused a falter in gas savings. The best she's done with it was a trip back from Denver. Fall went 400 miles on 7.7 gallons, she said. That's about 52 miles per gallon.
Even with the lofty gas prices of the past few weeks, Fall has managed to spend about $15 every other week at the pumps, she said.
Fitch has seen similar results.
"It's not quite double the best I was getting, but it's close to double what I was getting before," he said of the comparison between the Prius and the family's former road trip vehicle, a Pontiac Transport mini-van.
So far, his Prius has earned about 9,000 miles on the odometer. He's taken it to Wisconsin once, Phoenix twice, and all over the place during those excursions, he said.
Each round trip to Phoenix is about 2,500 miles. He used a total of 45 gallons for the trip, netting him 55.6 miles per gallon. Driving 65 miles per hour with the car's 11-gallon tank, he only needs to fill up about every nine hours.
Generally Fitch needs to stop and rest long before his car is ready to be refueled, he said.
With those kinds of results reported across the board, the demand for hybrid vehicles is just beginning, Brown said.
"As gas continues to creep up we're going to see more interest in the high mileage vehicles," he said.
The latest sales don't just show a switch to hybrids, but an extreme decline in the number of sport utility vehicles sold. The fact that SUVs have become one of the most popular trade-ins has really established the current buying trend's relationship to costly gas prices, according to Brown.
That's leading to the new era: The hybrid SUV.
Ford introduced the first hybrid four-wheel-drive this year with a new twist on the company's Escape. Other hybrid SUVs expected out later this year are the Lexus RX 400h, the Mercury Mariner and the Toyota Highlander. Hybrid trucks from GM and Dodge also are slated to be out in 2005.
With gas prices unlikely to drop for a while, hybrid SUVs and trucks could easily become the next most popular vehicle, according to Brown.
"The time is coming and yes, there's going to be a push for them," he said.
- By RACHEL PETERSON, News-Record Writer
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