It was only a matter of a few years ago that I was modifying my two door sports car to make the most power out of it and enjoying the adrenaline rush that came every time I hit the gas pedal. Although I still have that car, things have changed now. We were recently looking for a family vehicle, and being that I am the proud parent of a little girl going on one year old, the supercharged two seater just wasn’t the most practical vehicle for us. For the last few years we have been driving our truck that we bought to haul things around, but the fuel mileage has just been killing us since the day we bought it.
When searching through the market of higher fuel mileage vehicles and also looking over both AFV (Alternative Fuel Vehicles) and HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicles), I realized that buying a hybrid truck was almost out of the picture. It wasn’t until 2009 that the Chevy Silverado went to a full hybrid platform, and in that same year Dodge Durango only sold 9 of their hybrid trucks[1]. At this same time, the vehicle manufacturing companies were selling upwards of 300,000 hybrid cars during the year. It seems to me that when 50% of vehicles being sold are light-duty trucks[2], that also happen to be horrible on fuel mileage for the most part, maybe there should be more attention spent towards bringing them online as well. With the co-founder of Tesla coming out with a new power-train for the medium-duty trucks[3], there may be a whole new side to hybrid vehicles right around the corner.
What are some of the decisions that go into deciding what your companies next vehicle will be? If you could purchase a hybrid truck for a reasonable price, would this be an option for you?
[1] http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/data/docs/hev_sales.xls
[2] http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html
[3] http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4208687/Keynoter-Family-cars-wont-go-electric