Increasing Demand for Hybrid Car |
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Anthony Fontanelle
February 7, 2007
Environment consciousness has been growing in the public and this is what a recent survey shows. PULS, a German-based trend and market researcher conducted an online survey so as to find out what the public’s preference in car is.
They have polled more than 3,500 people who have either recently bought a car or is planning to buy one in the near future. They have conducted the survey in the different countries - United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, India, and China. The result shows that a large number of their respondents would go for hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles over gasoline or diesel powered units.
The survey shows 42.7 percent of the respondents will opt for a hybrid car and further said that hybrid vehicles are the cars of the future. The hybrid car got the most votes from the US where the Toyota Prius is already making waves in the market and significantly increasing its buyer base. 50.9 percent of respondents from the United States said that they will go for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) over any other kind of vehicle. Meanwhile, 46.9 percent of French respondents also said that they would opt for a hybrid vehicle. The further improvement in the Toyota Prius and the development of Honda of their hybrid car will definitely increase the interest of the public in such vehicles.
Taking the second place in the online survey is vehicles with hydrogen fuel cell technology for 41.9 percent of the respondents chose it. This alternative form of fuel used in vehicles has received much of the votes from China where more than half of the respondents see a future where hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles will be the ones to rule the roads. India’s public also found these hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles the way to go in the future. The result of the survey on these Asian countries contradicts the common belief that they are satisfied by just using traditional fuel.
Other alternative fuel-powered vehicles that have received much attention are those that use plant derived fuels. 38.1 percent of the respondents think that plant-derived fuels will replace fossil fuel which we are so dependent on today. Great Britain motorists show their strong support to the use of plant derived fuels with 45.6 percent of them giving their nod to these kinds of vehicles. The positive acceptance of respondents in Great Britain may be in fact due to the availability of cars in the European market which are powered by plant derived fuel like bio-ethanol. Bio-ethanol after all can already be used to power vehicles like some models by Volvo with FlexiFuel technology onboard.
Of all the respondents polled by PULS, only 11.5 percent said that the world will still be dependent on gasoline or diesel for our fuel. Overall though, the result of the survey shows how huge the demand for vehicles that will run on alternative fuels or will depend on renewable sources of energy. Indeed, the demand has been growing sharply that if the trend is like a car, the momentum it has would be quite hard to stop and would take only a high performance brake to stop, like an EBC rotor coupled with a high performance caliper. Furthermore, the survey shows the way for car makers to see the direction their consumers would want them to take. Car manufacturers need to step on the gas to give the public what they want and to sum it up, Dr. Konrad Wessner, owner and general manager of PULS said “If potential buyers perceive a certain engine type to have a capacity for the future, they will in turn prefer manufacturers who are leaders in their respective field.”
Source: Amazines.com