Cheap Gas Fuels Switch From Electric Cars To SUVs

schwit1 points out news that's sure to clash with Earth Day narratives: drivers who bought hybrid and electric cars are switching back to SUVs at a higher rate than ever. Quoting: According to Edmunds.com, about 22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV. The number represents a sharp increase from 18.8 percent last year, and it is nearly double the rate of 11.9 percent just three years ago. Overall, only 45 percent of this year's hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60 percent in 2012. Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50 percent. ... Edmunds calculates that at the peak average national gas price of $4.67/gallon in October 2012, it would take five years to break even on the $3,770 price difference between a Toyota Camry LE Hybrid ($28,230) and a Toyota Camry LE ($24,460). At today's national average gas price of $2.27/gallon, it would take twice as much time (10.5 years) to close the same gap.

Comments

Progressive Fix 101

[Tablizer]

Tax gas and spend the proceeds on "green" R&D.

Re:Progressive Fix 101

[Bing Tsher E]

Eliminate any exceptions to the CAFE standard for SUVs.

Background: The SUV class of vehicle only exists because it was a loophole in the CAFE standards. Automakers had to meet a 'fleet average' fuel economy for every vehicle they sold.

That meant Chevy needed to produce and sell a significant number of fuel-economical vehicles for each gas guzzler they sold. That requirement alone forced the Station Wagon almost entirely out of the market, because Chevy wants to sell heavily equipped pickup trucks to people who want them (will spend lots of extra $$) and not just to people who need them. Also to sell vettes and other crap.

The SUV loophole was that 'light sport utility vehicles' were exempt from the fleet average calculation, so the manufacturers sold the hell out of them.

Eliminate the SUV loophole and the big bloated turds would be gone quickly. Soccer moms ignoring the road because they're texting need to drive minivans with little engines, not pigiron.

1000 times

[Anonymous Coward]

We've read this a 1000 times. Stupid people think prices will be low forever. A year later said people cry they are paying $250 a week for gas. Can't fix stupid.

I'm driving a rented Nissan Pathfinder while my

[mark_reh]

car is being repaired. Ridiculous! 20 MPG and every time I step on the brakes or the gas it rocks back and forth like a rocking chair. It seats about as many people as a sedan and can carry only slightly more junk than a sedan. Why do people want to drive these things? They aren't attractive, they don't stop/go fast, they can't carry much stuff. I don't get it.

I don't understand why so many people want to drive pickups either. In a pickup you can only haul stuff you care about in decent weather. I get it if you're a farmer or ranch hand and need to haul messy stuff year round, but why would anyone else want to drive a truck? And why is it that the bigger the pickup, the greater the odds that they will back into parking spaces?

Woohoo we win, hippies!!

[NotDrWho]

Love,
The Oil Industry

P.S. We secretly own Whole Foods. You dumb fucks have been giving your money to us all along.

Re:!switching back

[David_Hart]

TFA is beyond dumb. It's not people switching back, it's people buying a second car for their household. Many people have one EV and one ICE car.

EV sales are rising fast. Few people switch back after getting one and realizing how great they are, mostly because they did their homework and made sure it suited them before spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Um, No.... From the article "about 22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV". These are direct trade-ins, not the purchase of a second car.

Life changes. People who are single or a couple who have smaller cars, no matter what type, will buy a bigger car when they have kids, get married, etc. I'm willing to bet that this explains a good percentage of this.

Other explanations might include buying SUVs to tow new recreational toys such as a boats, snow mobiles, etc. There aren't many hybrids on the market that are set up for towing.

Gas isn't free(as in beer), Many charge points are

[Ryyuajnin]

I don't care how cheep gas gets, Plenty of EV charging stations are 100% free. Last I checked, no one in my area was giving away free gas?

Further, people are obviously uninformed or misled on how EV's are, in the most important ways, superior automobiles for the daily use:

1) ZERO MAINTENANCE (except for breaks & tires, wipers/fluid)
2) Vastly fewer points of failure - NO: fuel pumps, alternators, starters, automatic transmission(unless you count a 1 speed transmission), main seals, mufflers, fuel injectors, heater cores, etc., etc...
3) Electricity is far cheaper than any gas any where every day.
4) Used EV's are SUPER CHEAP right now - http://goo.gl/ZAJV81
5) EV's are super quiet, peaceful, meditative.

Re:Buying cars based on fuel price... ugh

[LWATCDR]

Your Imperial gallon is larger than a US Gallon.
So he Mazda 6 gets 46 mpg on gas in UK terms.
The Chevy Cruze Diesel gets over 55 mpg.
Also the US uses a different testing method than the EU so often the same car with the same engine will get better ratings in the EU.

It's not just cheaper gas

[Solandri]

There's another reason. There are a lot more hybrid, diesel, and efficient trucks and SUVs becoming available. Most Americans' sense of the fuel efficiency of vehicles is distorted because it's measured in MPG. MPG is actually the inverse of fuel economy. Consequently the amount of fuel saved by vehicles like the Prius is exaggerated.

Here are the EPA figures for a 2004 3L 4WD Toyota Highlander, a 2015 3L 4WD Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and a 2015 Prius. Say you'd previously owned the 2004 Highlander and were looking to replace it. If you looked only at MPG, you'd think the Prius saves you a lot more gas than the Highlander Hybrid. The Prius gets 31 more MPG while the Highlander Hybrid only gets 9 more MPG.

But MPG is the inverse of fuel economy. Scroll down to "Annual Fuel Cost". The 2004 Highlander is estimated to cost $1900/yr in fuel. The Highlander Hybrid $1300/yr. The Prius $700/yr. In other words, switching to the Highlander Hybrid saves you $600/yr. Switching to the Prius saves you $1200/yr. The Highlander Hybrid gives you 50% the fuel savings of a Prius despite "only" getting a 9 MPG improvement vs 31 MPG improvement. How can this be? Because MPG is the inverse of fuel economy. Every time you double MPG, you save half the fuel you did in the previous doubling.

A lot of people laughed when hybrid trucks and SUVs first came out. If you want to save gas with a hybrid, why are you buying a big truck instead of an econobox like the Prius? But they were being deceived by MPG being the inverse of fuel consumption. If we as a country want to reduce fuel consumption, it's actually the low MPG vehicles like trucks and SUVs whose fuel economy you want to improve first by hybrid-izing them. They're the ones burning a disproportionately large amount of fuel, so improving their mileage first will save more fuel. Economy cars already burn so little fuel that making them a hybrid gets you little improvement. e.g. Dropping a hybrid in a 35 MPG economy car to get 50 MPG only saves you $350/yr by EPA estimates. While dropping the hybrid in a 19 MPG SUV to get 28 MPG saves you $600/yr. In other words, each SUV-buyer you can convince to buy a hybrid SUV instead saves nearly twice as much fuel as each environmentalist you convince to switch from their already-efficient car to a Prius.

If we really want to save gas, we should be concentrating on ways to improve the mileage of pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, and tractor trailers (actually most of their cargo should be shifted to trains, but that's another argument). The rest of the world uses liters/100 km to avoid this misconception about fuel economy.