Hybrid Auto Sales Die

A car dealer in one of my classes explained to me that the market for hybrid cars was people who had to put a few hundred miles a day on their car (say salespeople) and people wishing to take advantage of the sticker for hybrid cars that allows Single Occupant Vehicles to us the High Occupant Vehicle lanes on the freeway. Once that group of salespeople was covered and the stickers used up, the market died months ago. there is simply not enough people who believe the environment is in danger or care enough to buy one now.

The cars were never profitable for the auto makers, even with the subsidies doe "basic research," and they make no economic sense for those who buy the4m (outside of the mentioned groups above).

Nonetheless, after failing to meet cvonsumers demands, the government wants Detroit to make more of what is crazy. As the LA Times reports:

Yet automakers believe they have little choice but to make more hybrids. Though car buyers are losing interest, politicians are pushing them as key to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and limiting the global-warming gases that cars emit into the atmosphere.

In a free market, we'd no doubt move to Mag Lev.

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