US car buyers are trading in hybrid and electric cars for SUVs at a higher rate than ever before, according to car-buying advice website Edmunds.com.
“The analysis offers a surprising look at how today’s gas [petrol] prices are drawing hybrid and EV owners toward gas-guzzling vehicles at a much more accelerated pace than in recent years,” Edmunds said.
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About 22% of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV. That number is up sharply from 18.8% last year and nearly double the rate of 11.9% just three years ago. Overall, only 45% of this year’s hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60% in 2012.
“Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50%,” Edmunds said.
“For better or worse, it looks like many hybrid and EV owners are driven more by financial motives rather than a responsibility to the environment,” said Edmunds.com director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell.
“Three years ago, when gas was at near-record highs, it was a lot easier to rationalise the price premiums on alternative fuel vehicles. But with today’s gas prices as low as they are, the math just doesn’t make a very compelling case.”
To underscore the point, Edmunds calculated that, at the peak average national gas price of US$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.
The analysis as overall sales of alternative vehicles have continued to slide in the US.
EVs and hybrids accounted for just 2.7% of all new car sales in the first quarter of 2015, down from 3.3% during that same period last year. The share of SUVs, in contrast, increased from 31.8% in Q1 2014 to 34.2% in Q1 2015.
