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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
But the vast majority of Americans don't know these cars are even available -- that futuristic automobiles that get incredible mileage, significantly reduce pollution, recharge their own batteries and feel pretty much like any other car on the road, even exist. Only around a quarter of the American people know hybrid technology is here, according to Beth Henning, the executive in charge of marketing the Prius to the United States.
The Honda Insight has been available since December 1999, but only 6,500 have been sold in the United States, and only 19,500 Priuses have been sold since they were introduced in June 2000. During that time, the American consumer has embraced the exact opposite kind of vehicle -- immense, pollution-spewing gas guzzlers exempt from the average mileage restrictions that cars must meet. Last year, light trucks -- pickups, SUVs and vans -- outsold cars for the first time in history, accounting for 50.5 percent of the market. Almost 9 million light trucks were sold, including 4 million SUVs and 2.3 million full-size pickups.
What would have to happen for Americans to really open up their wallets for leaner, greener machines? Don't forget, it was only about 20 years ago that the entire country openly embraced the teeny-weeny fuel-efficient cars (I have harrowing memories of my mom's tinfoil-thin, yellow Datsun Honeybee). Can national-security concerns guilt us into micro-sizing?
No, at least according to Duncan Pollock, president of Siegel & Gale, an independent strategic branding and corporate identification firm in New York. "What is the motivation for a car like that?" he asks. "As much as people talk about environmental issues and care about environmental issues, I don't think 'green' sells. I don't think it's a strong buying motivation."
While Pollock agrees that U.S. dependence on foreign oil is a "legitimate public policy issue, especially in the wake of 9/11," he doesn't see it transferring to car showrooms. That hybrids are only manufactured by Japanese automakers is one problem -- the contradiction with any reflexive "Buy American" sentiment intrudes on the patriotic philosophy. More importantly, Pollock says, the national-security argument is "too abstract."
"I think when you're spending $20,000 on a car, the question is 'What's in it for me?' People want a reasonable amount of driveability and power so they can get on the highway safely."
But Pollock's marketing and advertising expertise -- he's worked for both BMW and General Motors -- stands in stark contrast with the hopefulness of Prius owners, including those in official Washington, like Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.
When Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, was warning the members of the House Armed Services Committee two weeks ago about the economic chaos the nation would face if terrorists were to sink an oil tanker making its way from the Persian Gulf through the narrow but strategic Straits of Hormuz, Bartlett says he was gladder than ever that he owned a Prius.
"Forty-three percent of the world's oil moves through the Straits of Hormuz," Bartlett tells me, of the only, and narrow, sea route for oil shipped from Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and most of the United Arab Emirates. If terrorists sank a tanker there, it could delay oil supplies for months, and "it would be catastrophic." Though he originally bought his Prius to set a good environmental example, he now sees the Prius as key to national security.
But to the Bush Administration, at least, there are limits to how much hybrids should be embraced. Bush's press event was notable for the fact that the three automobile manufacturers present were all American -- and none will have hybrid cars available for purchase until 2003 at the earliest. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer described the American hybrids to come, none of which were cars and all of which were hybrid light trucks -- the Chevy Silverado hybrid truck, the Ford Escape HEV hybrid electric vehicle (a hybrid SUV), and the Chrysler Town and Country Atrium minivan (without mentioning that Toyota and Honda already had hybrid vehicles in the market). Bigger and bulkier than the Prius and Insight, these vehicles will not be nearly as fuel efficient or cut down as much on the emission of pollutants. More importantly, they don't even exist -- they're scheduled to hit showrooms on a limited basis in the next two to three years, but no sooner than 2003.
With the exception of Ford, American auto companies are preparing to use hybrid technology that's "really underwhelming," says Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program for the liberal Union of Concerned Scientists. The hybrid vehicles soon to be trotted out by General Motors and DaimlerChrysler will only have fuel economies improved by approximately 20 percent, when it could be 50 percent better. (The pending Ford Escape hybrid SUV is far more on the program, Mark says.) "They call them 'mild hybrids,'" he says. "We call them 'weak hybrids.'" They conserve a bit more fuel, provide the car a little more power, but essentially mild hybrids don't make priorities of energy efficiency or the environment.
