12 Responses

1. Gas is back down.. the panic is over .. for now.

2. already in production.

   five years be on road and ten years common.

3. The hybrid cars are still around, but their is such a demand for them that its hard for the companies to keep up production. And the electric cars were all crushed because the American Auto makers made a HUGE mistake and let the Jap. take over this part of the market.

4. Hybrids are only for the “feel good” crowd. They really don’t do anything good for the environment or the oil situation. The batteries are incredibly expensive. If you use energy, it’s got to come from somewhere.

5. The electric car was impracticle and got booted by the Hybrid. Hybrids were actually on back order when gas jumped, so why advertise when you can’t meet current demand? Anyway, its one of those things where the technology and the assembly isn’t perfected. Car companies make little money on hybrids so they would rather you buy their other cars. People have also come to realize that you can barely save the extra expense of the car with the extra fuel economy.

6. It’s called the free market. It didn’t take people long to figure out that the hybrid cars weren’t worth the additional cost. Electric cars have so many problems that most people don’t want the headaches. Just remember, it takes the same amount of energy to move a car, be it gas, hybrid, or electric. Every time you change energy you loose energy so the electric is really the most inefficient because of how many time the electricity is change from start to car. The hybrids gas mileage is misleading, given identical cars one gas, one hybrid on the highway the gas mileage is simular.

7. In case you missed it, gasoline prices are way down. The demand for hybrids is probably also way down.

8. I recommend checking out the amazing answer I got to this question.
   The user Apeweek ( I want him to recieve credit for this answer) gave this answer to my question:

   Well, the reliability issue is just a bad rap. Ford earned this poor reputation a long time ago, but no longer deserves it. If you study quality metrics, you will see that all the manufacturers are now very close to each other in build quality.
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   The fuel efficiency, and electric car issues, however, are very interesting to me. In addition to the Tesla electric sports car, take a look at the Phoenix:
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   http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet…
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   This car, based on new battery research, can travel up to 250 miles per charge, cruises at 95mph with 5 passengers and cargo, can be charged in only ten minutes, and the batteries are good for at least 200,000 miles.
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   Yet, last I heard, Ford is still not even looking at plug-in hybrids. I don’t believe any of the Detroit car companies will get serious about this issue until foreign competition makes them. This attitude does not come from malice, but rather from inertia. Nobody likes to have to learn to do things a different way – especially large corporations.
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   In my opinion, the first mass-market electric car will come from China. The Chinese have developed a propulsion Lithium battery which sells for about a tenth what competing batteries cost:
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   http://www.everspring.net/product-batter…
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   There is already an importer working to bring Chinese EVs here, at prices comparable to what gas-powered cars sell for. See below:
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   http://milesautomotive.com/showroom_xs20…
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9. There is a book called, “Who Killed the Electric Car.” The car was made about 10 years ago, and they ran on pure electricity (I believe, I dont remember everything.) The book basically says that the big oil companies banned it because it took away their money. It is documented that these cars were destroyed by the government and these companies. THIS IS NOT LIBERAL PROPOGANDA.

10. The USA was behind during the energy crisis back in the early 80s so it’s no surprise they’ll be last building any viable alternative fuel cars now too. The only decent small cars came from overseas back then-took them years to build the Ford Pinto, the Chevy Vega (they were awful). Meanwhile, I happily drove my Datsun(which is now Nissan) in spite of dire warnings that “American” was better. Has anyone noticed we continue to have less and less fuel efficient cars here?

    In 2003, lawmakers expanded the tax deduction to a whopping $100,000 as part of the $350 million tax cut package. Yet Congress did not change the weight-based classification of the vehicles, creating a huge benefit for the largest, least efficient vehicles. With the current top business tax rate at 35 percent, this incentive program effectively cuts $18,900 off the price of a $54,000 Escalade.

    The much smaller hybrid tax credit is disappearing-it was based on how many vehicles were sold-Nissan reached it’s “limit” quickly!

    There’s also a movie “Who killed the electric Car?”

11. They reduced in number when the people trying to drive their hybrids off road discovered the cars were useless for driving in all kinds of weather.

12. Good question. A movie came out this year – ” Who killed the Electric Car? “. Electric cars, hybrids and ethanol are the future.
    Republicans tried to kill it, but they will return.