Here come the hybrids
Undated-AP -- Car owners have been slow to make the move to hybrid vehicles, which run on a combination of gasoline and electric power and get terrific gas mileage. But their popularity could accelerate dramatically very soon. J-D Power and Associates forecasts a dramatic increase in sales of hybrids over the next ten years.
The consulting and market research firm says Americans bought around 38-thousand hybrid vehicles last year, and sales are expected to hit 54-thousand this year. J-D Power says by 2008 we'll be purchasing more than 500-thousand hybrid cars and trucks each year and that will rise to 872-thousand by 2013.
The report says sales will climb as more automakers and more types of vehicles enter the hybrid market.
Up to now, hybrid engines have been available only in compact cars, but J-D Power says soon they'll be offered in the larger vehicles that many Americans prefer and sales should take off. The researchers say just two years from now, trucks will account for more than a-third of hybrid sales.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
