There are early adopters.
And then there’s Rob Neighbour.
Washington Auto Show
The Grid: Scenes from the show
A roundup of stories, photos, tweets and other content from the car show.
Neighbour, an airline pilot who lives in Laurel, bought his first electric car 15 years ago — a converted 1984 Pontiac Fiero he found on eBay. Since then, he’s acquired four more, his latest a $77,000 Tesla Model S.
“I needed a car that would give me sufficient range,” he said, refering to his new electric model that is supposed to take him 265 miles on a single charge.
Neighbour’s quest for range might be a metaphor for the Washington area, which was early to show interest in hybrids and other alternative-fuel vehicles, but is still looking for more. Automakers descended on the Washington Auto Show this week to pitch their latest offerings, which included a wider selection of battery-powered cars and the infrastructure to recharge them.
The market is still in its infancy.
This past November, for instance, 4.53 percent of new cars sold in Washington were hybrids, higher than the national average of 3 percent and up from 3.64 percent in the region in 2011, according to vehicle registration data compiled by R.L. Polk, an automotive research firm in Detroit. The D.C. market now ranks second, just behind Los Angeles and ahead of San Francisco, in percentage of hybrid sales for Ford Motor Co., which has the greatest share of the market among U.S. companies. Sales of its most popular hybrid model, Fusion, jumped 21 percent here last year compared to 2011.
The Central Atlantic region, which includes Maryland and Virginia, also accounts for 9 percent of all sales of Toyota Prius models, of which there are more currently on the road in the United States than all other hybrids combined. That ranks fourth nationally, behind Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Southeast region.
Hybrid benefits
“People like [hybrids] for their fuel economy, advanced technology features, and in our region, they make great commuter vehicles, especially where they have access to HOV lanes,” Martha Voss, a Woodbridge resident and Toyota spokeswoman, said in an e-mail, noting that restricted lanes on some highways around the District now allow drivers with “clean fuel” plates to drive on them during rush hours.
In just the past couple of years, said Joe Taylor, director of training at Darcars Automotive Group in Silver Spring, interest in the technology has also spread to a wider base of consumers, noting that he now has “customers who are 20 years old and customers who are 80 year old buying hybrids.”
He added that “the older ones are often much more impressed with some of the new technology in these vehicles, while the younger buyers who grew up in a digital age are looking at these vehicles because they have come to expect being surrounded by the latest technology.”
Meanwhile, early-adopters are starting to come back for new cars, and dealers say they are closely monitoring how many hybrid buyers are electing to stick with the alternatives for their subsequent purchases.
So far, Jack Ballinghoff, general manager at Koons Tysons Toyota, said “a very high percentage of them are choosing hybrid vehicles again,” estimating the renewal rate at between 50 and 75 percent.
Loading...
Comments